Confidant of North Korea's Kim Jong Il dies


North Korea: SEOUL, South Korea -- Jo Myong Rok, a longtime confidant of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il who traveled to Washington in 2000 on a then unprecedented goodwill mission, has died.

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He was 82.

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Jo - who had served as first vice chairman of the North's powerful National Defense Commission since 1998 - died Saturday of inveterate Heart Disease, the official Korean Central News Agency reported in a dispatch from Pyongyang. "His death is a great loss to the party, The Army and people of (North Korea) w...

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