Kim Yong Nam, the longtime No. 2 in North Korea’s leadership hierarchy who died this week at 97, was a rare survivor in the cutthroat world of Pyongyang politics.

The chairman of the Presidium of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) for decades, Kim enjoyed an exceptionally long and steady career despite likely suspicions around his place of birth and time spent abroad.

In the first hierarchical list of state officials at the start of Kim Jong Un’s rule — the 2011 funeral committee for Kim Jong Il — Kim Yong Nam was named second, just after the new