Kim Ki-nam, hospitalized since 2022, died on Tuesday due to old age and “various organic dysfunctions”
Former North Korean propaganda chief Kim Ki-nam, considered the mastermind of the ruling Kim family personality cult, has died at the age of 94, the official KCNA news agency announced this Wednesday.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un stood silently before his coffin this morning “with bitter sadness over the loss of a revolutionary veteran who remained, without fail, loyal” to the regime, KCNA reported.
Kim Ki-nam, hospitalized since 2022, died on Tuesday due to old age and “various organic dysfunctions,” the agency wrote.
Kim is best known for heading North Korea’s Agitation and Propaganda Department from 1989 to 2017, after being editor-in-chief of the state-owned newspaper Rodong Sinmun in the 1970s. He was also vice-president of the North Korean Workers’ Party. North Korea, in power.
He began his career under the direction of Kim Il-sung (1948-1994), and was considered a close friend of his son and successor Kim Jong-il (1994-2011), father of the current leader.
Some of the regime’s main slogans and leaders’ speeches are due to him, and he is also considered the mentor of the cult of personality surrounding the Kim family, through numerous articles and essays.
“A veteran of our party and the revolution, a prestigious theoretician and a leading political activist”, said KCNA.
The role as the regime’s main propaganda chief has been in the hands of Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, since 2018.
