Kim Ki-nam, 'North Korea's Goebbels' Who Led the Kim Family Idolization, Passes Away

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Kim Ki-nam, the former secretary in charge of propaganda and agitation for the Workers' Party who led the promotion and idolization of the North Korean regime across three generations?Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un?and was so-called the "Goebbels of North Korea," has passed away.

The Korean Central News Agency announced on the 8th, "Comrade Kim Ki-nam, who had been receiving treatment in bed since April 2022 due to old age and multiple organ failure, ultimately did not recover and sadly passed away at 10 a.m. on May 7, 2024, at the age of 94." The agency evaluated, "Comrade Kim Ki-nam devoted everything to the sacred struggle to uphold and strengthen the ideological purity of our revolution and to politically secure the steady victory of the socialist cause."

Kim Ki-nam, former Secretary in charge of propaganda and agitation of the Workers' Party of Korea, who was called the "Goebbels of North Korea" and led the promotion of the North Korean regime, has died, Chosun Central News Agency reported on the 8th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The body of former Secretary Kim was laid in state at the Seojang Hall in the Potonggang District of Pyongyang. Chairman Kim Jong-un visited the mourning hall around 2 a.m. that day and personally took charge as the chairman of the state funeral committee, deciding to hold a state funeral.

Former Secretary Kim was referred to by titles such as "the Goebbels of North Korea" and "the godfather of propaganda and agitation." Starting as deputy head of the Party's Propaganda and Agitation Department in the 1960s, he later served as head of the department and secretary in charge of propaganda. He was a leading figure in the idolization of the "three-generation hereditary succession" from Kim Il-sung to Kim Jong-un. Even after Kim Jong-un's rise to power, when many key figures were purged, he unusually maintained his position, but with generational change, he was excluded from the presidium list at the 2nd Plenary Meeting of the 7th Party Central Committee in October 2017. It is known that he relinquished his posts as vice chairman of the Party and head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department at that time.

Kim Ki-nam, former Secretary in charge of propaganda and agitation of the Workers' Party of Korea, who was called the "Goebbels of North Korea" and led the North Korean regime's propaganda efforts, has died, Chosun Central News Agency reported on the 8th. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Former Secretary Kim was considered a close aide to Kim Jong-il, the National Defense Commission Chairman. When former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung passed away in 2009, he led the North Korean special envoy delegation to the South to express condolences. Earlier, in 2005, during the August 15 National Liberation Festival, he made a groundbreaking visit to Seoul, paying respects at the National Cemetery and even visiting former President Kim Dae-jung, who was hospitalized with pneumonia at the time. In December 2011, upon Kim Jong-il's death, he served as a funeral committee member and was one of the "eight men" who carried the hearse along with Jang Song-thaek and others.