Kim Ki-nam, who was often called “North Korea’s Goebbels,” a reference to the Nazi propagandist, because of his role in manufacturing and enforcing totalitarian propaganda for all three generations of the country’s ruling Kim family, has died at 94, North Korean state media reported on Wednesday.
Mr. Kim, who was not related to the North Korean dictators, died on Tuesday of multiple organ failures after having been sick for a year, according to the reports.
Mr. Kim’s tenure as the leader of North Korea’s propaganda apparatus extended from the days of Kim Il-sung, who founded the country at the end of World War II, to 2017.
Propaganda is central to the Kim family’s Stalinist grip on power.
The daily coverage of North Korea’s news media, all state-controlled, brims with propaganda designed to keep its 26 million people in the thrall of a personality cult surrounding the ruling family.
Persons:
Kim Ki, Korea’s Goebbels, ”, Kim, Kim’s, Kim Il, thrall
Locations:
North Korean
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