Mastermind behind North Korean propaganda dies at the age of 94

NOS News•today, 10:42

Kim Ki-nam, the man who arranged propaganda for the dictatorial regime of the Kim family for decades, has died in North Korea. He experienced all three North Korean leaders who have been in power since the declaration of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in 1948. Kim Ki-nam was 94 years old.

He had not been working for seven years and was said to have been in hospital since 2022 because his organs were no longer functioning properly. Kim Ki-nam died yesterday of multiple organ failure, North Korea’s KCNA news agency reported.

He started working for then-leader Kim Il-sung’s party in 1956, where he was appointed deputy director of the propaganda department ten years later. According to KCNA, Kim Ki-nam devoted “everything to consolidating the ideological and theoretical basis of the party” for more than sixty years.

In neighboring South Korea, which is still formally at war with North Korea, he is described differently. The South Korean news agency Yonhap calls Kim Ki-nam “the North Korean Goebbels”, after the propaganda minister under the Nazi rule of Adolf Hitler in World War II.

Kim Ki-nam took charge of the state-run newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, in the 1970s. His influence reached further and further over the years. He was the creator of state political slogans, had a strong influence in the media and publishing houses and he ensured that visual artists in North Korea portrayed the Kim rulers favorably.

The propaganda chief, who is not related to the Kim dynasty, had a close relationship with Kim Jong-il. According to the BBC, they were seen as “drinking buddies”. When the leader died in 2011, Kim Ki-nam was one of seven senior officials who accompanied the hearse, along with new leader Kim Jong Un.

Kim Jong-un today visited Pyongyang, where Kim Ki-nam lies in state. According to the North Korean leader, it is “a loss of a seasoned revolutionary who was boundlessly loyal to the country until the end.”

Tomorrow, Kim Ki-nam will receive a state funeral in the North Korean capital.