Kim Jong Un bows before the man who made him a god: North Korean leader shows his respect at the funeral of mastermind who created the personality cult surrounding his family’s dynasty
North Korea’s former propaganda chief who masterminded the personality cult surrounding the ruling Kim dynasty has died, state media said on Wednesday, as leader Kim Jong Un was photographed bowing before his funeral funeral coffin.
Kim Ki Nam died on Tuesday due to old age and “multiple organ dysfunction” after being treated in a hospital since 2022, the official Korean Central News Agency said. He was 94.
Kim Jong Un visited the funeral hall early Wednesday morning, paying a silent tribute and looking around the funeral coffin with “bitter sadness over the loss of a veteran revolutionary who had remained boundlessly loyal” to the regime, state media KCNA said.
The North Korean leader was seen bowing to the bier as a contingent of uniformed soldiers serenaded them with various musical instruments.
Nam was routinely called the Joseph Goebbels of North Korea, referring to the Nazi propagandist-in-chief, so key was his work to entrench the Kim family in power.
Kim Jong Un visited the funeral hall early Wednesday morning, paying a silent tribute and looking around the funeral coffin with “bitter sadness over the loss of a veteran revolutionary who had remained boundlessly loyal” to the regime, state media KCNA said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) and senior officials express their condolences to former Korean Workers’ Party Vice Chairman Kim Ki Nam
According to the North, Kim Ki Nam was in charge of Pyongyang’s official mouthpiece, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, in the 1970s.
He is seen as the driving force behind the propaganda controlling the cult of the Kim family dynasty, with Pyongyang state media describing him on Wednesday as “a veteran of our party and the revolution, a prestigious theorist and a leading political activist.”
An image released by the Rodong Sinmun showed leader Kim dressed in a dark suit, solemnly paying his respects next to senior party and military officials, in front of what appeared to be a flower-decorated bier.
The Kim dynasty, founded by Kim Il Sung, Pyongyang’s founding father, has ruled the impoverished, isolated country for three generations with an iron fist and a pervasive cult of personality.
The family is revered in the north as the “Paektu bloodline,” named after the country’s highest mountain and the suspected birthplace of late leader Kim Jong Il.
In 2015, images in state media showed the late official Kim Ki Nam, then in his 80s, diligently taking notes in the presence of Kim Jong Un, more than 50 years his junior.
Kim Ki Nam “is the North Korean equivalent of (Nazi propaganda chief) Paul Joseph Goebbels,” said Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who heads the World Institute for North Korea Studies.
“It is safe to say that the Kim Dynasty’s propaganda and agitation strategies all came from the mind of Kim Ki Nam.”
Kim Ki Nam was seen as the driving force behind the propaganda that controlled the cult of the Kim family dynasty
Kim Jong-un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, took over Kim Ki Nam’s role as chief propagandist about seven years ago
Kim Ki Nam’s role as the regime’s chief propagandist was eventually handed over to Kim Jong-un’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, in the late 2010s.
According to the Seoul Ministry of Unification, her arrival at the propaganda department as a high-ranking person took place in 2018.
Kim Ki Nam led a North Korean delegation in 2005 to visit South Korea’s National Cemetery to honor soldiers who died during the Korean War, when inter-Korean relations were in a better state.
In 2009, the late official led a North Korean delegation to South Korea to attend the funeral of Seoul’s former conciliatory president Kim Dae-jung. During the visit, they laid a wreath signed by then-leader of Pyongyang, Kim Jong Il.
Kim Dae-jung made a historic visit to Pyongyang in 2000, where he met Kim Jong Il, the predecessor and father of current leader Kim Jong Un.
During his visit to Seoul in 2009, Kim Ki Nam met then-President of Seoul Lee Myung-bak.
Inter-Korean relations have recently been at one of their lowest points in years, with Pyongyang declaring South Korea its “main enemy.”
It is unfortunate that Pyongyang did not mention Kim Ki Nam’s efforts for inter-Korean cooperation after his death, Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP.
“It seems to show the current state of inter-Korean relations, characterized by confrontation and conflict,” he said.