Overview
- Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on December 8 that Alexander Matsegora died on December 6 at age 70.
- The veteran diplomat was noted for unusually frequent access to Kim Jong Un and was invited in 2024 as a personal guest to a Workers’ Party anniversary performance.
- No official cause of death has been released, and there has been no announcement on who will replace him in Pyongyang.
- Matsegora, born in 1955 in Odessa, graduated from MGIMO in 1978 and became a diplomat in 1999.
- Hokkaido Shimbun Digital reported the announcement and carried a 2023 photo of Matsegora credited to TASS/Kyodo.