Choson'gul 김기남 Name Kim Ki-nam Hancha 金起南 Role Government official | Revised Romanization Kim Gi-nam Education Kim Il-sung University McCune–Reischauer Kim Ki-nam Party Workers' Party of Korea | |
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Kim Ki-nam (born August 28, 1926, 1928 or 1929, in Wonsan) is a North Korean official. He is a Vice Chairman (formerly Secretary) of the Workers' Party of Korea, and Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department, responsible for coordinating the country's press, media, fine arts, and publishing to support government policy. He is also a vice-chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, in which capacity he has led numerous visits to the South, and has served several terms in the Supreme People's Assembly, to which he was first elected in November 1977.
A graduate from the Kim Il-sung University and Soviet party schools, at first he worked in foreign affairs (being North Korea's ambassador to Beijing in the early 1950s) before moving to the Propaganda and Agitation Department in the late 1960s. In 1974, he was appointed editor of the Party's theoretical magazine, Kulloja, and in 1976 he was promoted to editor-in-chief of Rodong Sinmun. He is credited with having produced articles and essays creating the cult of Kim Jong-il and praising Kim Il-sung's historic role. He was elected to the WPK Central Committee at the 6th Party Congress in October 1980, director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department in April 1989 and simultaneously secretary for propaganda and party history in 1992.
Kim Ki-nam has been the party's propaganda boss and key author of the country's political slogans since Kim Jong-il's regime. He was given a role in ensuring Kim Jong-un's succession drive and appointed to the Politburo in September 2010. He was one of the only two civilian officials who accompanied Kim Jong-il's coffin during his funeral in December 2011, the other being Choe Thae-bok.
In 2016, he was placed under sanctions by the United States government.