Obituary: Kim Ki-nam, ‘Goebbels of North Korea’ who shaped personality cult around the ruling Kim dynasty

Kim Ki-nam was said to have been a ‘drinking buddy’ of Kim Jong-il

Telegraph Obituaries
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Kim Ki-nam, who has died aged 94, was known, south of the 38th parallel, as the Goebbels of North Korea and was widely credited as the mastermind behind the personality cult woven around the ruling Kim dynasty, elevating the veneration of family members above even ideology in the hermit kingdom.

Over more than four decades as the leader of North Korea’s propaganda apparatus, Kim Ki-nam (no relation of the dictators), was instrumental in the creation of the cult around the “eternal leaders of Korea”, the founder of North Korea Kim Il-sung and his successors, Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un, helping to establish the country as a one-man hereditary dictatorship through successive generations.