:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/grupoclarin/4H23JUFOARCBRE5YWJSQMHRD5A.jpg "North Korean official whose propaganda helped build the Kim dynasty dies at 94")
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Kim Ki Nam, a North Korean propaganda chief who helped build personality cults around the country’s three dynastic leaders, has died at age 94, North Korean state media reported.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that the country’s current leader, Kim Jong Un, visited the body of Kim Ki Nam in a funeral hall in the capital, Pyongyang, early Wednesday and expressed his condolences to members of the family. According to the agency, Kim Jong Un will lead the state funeral committee for Kim Ki Nam, who will be buried on Thursday.
The ACNC said Kim Ki Nam, former secretary of the central committee of the Workers’ Party, “dedicated everything to the sacred struggle to defend and strengthen the ideological purity of our revolution and firmly guarantee the sustained victory of the socialist cause.” The agency reported that he had died on Tuesday after being treated for the past year for age-related illnesses and multiple organ dysfunctions.
Kim Ki Nam’s role as the country’s chief propagandist earned him notoriety in South Korea, where the media dubbed him the “North Korean Goebbels,” in reference to Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels.
He also led the delegation to South Korea in 2009 that attended the funeral of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who had sought engagement with North Korea and held a summit with former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the current ruler’s father.
Kim Ki Nam was one of seven senior officials who accompanied Kim Jong Un on the hearse of late leader Kim Jong Il after his death in 2011.
Before assuming leadership roles in the ruling party’s propaganda departments starting in the 1980s, Kim Ki Nam was a professor at Kim Il Sung University and editor-in-chief of the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper.