North Korea’s former propaganda chief, credited with masterminding the personality cult surrounding the ruling Kim dynasty, has died at the age of 94, state media said yesterday, with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un photographed bowing at his funeral bier.
Kim Ki-nam died on Tuesday due to old age and “multiple organ dysfunction,” having been treated at hospital since 2022, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
Kim Jong-un visited the funeral hall early yesterday morning, paid silent tribute and looked around the bier with “bitter grief over the loss of a veteran revolutionary who had remained boundlessly loyal” to the regime, KCNA said.
Photo: AP
Kim Ki-nam is best known for having led North Korea’s key department for propaganda.
In the 1970s, he was in charge of Pyongyang’s official mouthpiece, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, according to the North.
He is credited with masterminding the cult of the Kim family dynasty, and Pyongyang’s state media yesterday described him as “a veteran of our Party and the revolution, a prestigious theoretician and a prominent political activist.”
The Kim dynasty, established by founding North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, has ruled the nation with an iron fist and pervasive personality cult over three generations.
Kim Ki-nam “is the North Korean equivalent of Paul Joseph Goebbels,” said Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies.
“It is safe to say that the propaganda and agitation strategies of the Kim dynasty all came from Kim Ki-nam’s mind,” Ahn said.
Kim Ki-nam’s role as the regime’s chief propagandist was passed on to Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, in the late 2010s.
In 2005, Kim Ki-nam led a North Korean delegation to visit South Korea’s National Cemetery, honoring soldiers who died during the Korean War.
In 2009, he led a delegation to the South to attend the funeral of former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung and met with then-South Korean president Lee Myung-bak.
Inter-Korean relations are at one of their lowest points in years.
It is regrettable that Pyongyang has made no mention of Kim Ki-nam’s efforts for inter-Korean cooperation following his death, said Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
“It seems to show the current state of inter-Korean relations characterized by confrontation and conflict,” he said.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS