North Korea’s Joseph Goebbels gave the Kim dictators divine status, but opted for the shadows himself

IIn the characteristic roaring style full of subordinate clauses and superlatives that Kim Ki-nam made famous during his lifetime, the North Korean state news agency KCNA reported the news of his death: ‘Kim Jong-un paid a silent tribute to Kim Ki-nam, who made contributions to the holy struggle for the development of the Korean Workers’ Party, modeling the revolutionary ranks on the monolithic ideology and the victorious march of the socialist cause.”

According to KCNA, dictator Kim Jong-un looked at the ‘boundlessly loyal’ Kim Ki-nam with ‘bitter sadness over the loss of a seasoned revolutionary’.

Although you usually have to take North Korean propaganda texts with a bucket full of salt, at least the latter is correct: Kim Ki-nam (no relation) was one of the most loyal servants of the dynastic Kim dictatorship. For the three generations of North Korean leaders – Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un – he was one of the most important propagandists.

Spider in the web

Any autocratic political system is only as strong as the belief in it of its subjects. The fact that the Kim family has been able to remain in power for more than seventy years without significant contradiction is largely thanks to Kim Ki-nam, according to professor of Korean Studies Remco Breuker of Leiden University: ‘He was the spider in the web of personality cult created around the Kims.”

Much of the myth-making surrounding the dynasty comes from Kim Ki-nam or must at least have had his stamp of approval, says Breuker. This is how he, who died in 1994, rules founding father Kim Il Sung has been symbolically over his grave since he was declared ‘eternal president’ by the North Korean propaganda apparatus.

It was made up for his son and successor Kim Jong-il that he was born on Mount Paektusan, which Koreans traditionally view as sacred. Message: Kim Jong-il is divine. He was most likely born in the far east of Russia, where his father was active as a revolutionary fighter.

All corners of the country

“The personality cult is the regime’s grip on power,” says Breuker. ‘Kim Ki-nam has ensured that it reached every corner of the country.’

In 1966 he became deputy director of the Department of Propaganda and Agitation. There he worked closely with the young Kim Jong-il. At that time it was not yet certain that the communist ‘people’s republic’ would de facto develop into an absolute monarchy.

Breuker: ‘Kim Jong-il’s rise took place through the party’s propaganda apparatus. He was the substantive basis of the personality cult. That’s how he ultimately took power.’

Kim Ki-nam became editor-in-chief of Rodong Sinmun, the workers’ newspaper, in which the superiority of the leaders is endlessly praised. ‘Every citizen is expected every day Rodong Sinmun to read. The newspaper also hangs in public behind glass, so that all passers-by can take note of it.’

Vice Director Kim Yo-jong

From 1985 to 2017, Kim Ki-nam was director of the Propaganda Department. In the end, his real power had probably disappeared for a few years, since Kim Yo-jong, Kim Jong-un’s sister, became deputy director of the department, Breuker says: ‘It cannot be the case that he is someone from the Kim family gave orders.’

The comparison with Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany, comes to mind in South Korean media. Breuker does not entirely agree with this: ‘Goebbels himself came to the fore a lot, while Kim Ki-nam remained in the background. Because it was all about the cult around the Kims.’

At the end of his career, Kim Ki-nam was already well into his eighties: ‘The fact that he stayed for so long means first and foremost that he continued to live, and was therefore trusted,’ says Breuker. Anyone who falls out with the leader is sent to a prison camp or killed. Kim Ki-nam was so loyal that after Kim Jong-il’s death, he was one of the few who was allowed to accompany his coffin at the funeral.

‘But he was probably also very good at his job,’ says Breuker. ‘He may not have come up with everything himself, but there will be almost no expression, from political slogan to musical number, that has not been approved by him.’