(LEAD) N. Korea's ex-propaganda chief Kim Ki-nam dies at 94: KCNA

North Korea 10:14 May 08, 2024

(ATTN: ADDS photos, details throughout)

SEOUL, May 8 (Yonhap) -- Kim Ki-nam, known as the master of propaganda operations for North Korea's ruling Kim family, has died at 94, Pyongyang's state media said Wednesday.

The former secretary of the Central Committee of the North's ruling Workers' Party (WPK) died Tuesday after suffering multiple organ failures since April 2022, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

This undated file photo, released by the Korean Central News Agency, shows Kim Ki-nam, the former secretary of the Central Committee of the North's ruling Workers' Party and known as the country's propaganda master. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited the funeral hall of the former official at 2 a.m. and will lead the state funeral committee for his burial, it added.

"Kim Jong-un paid silent tribute to Kim Ki-nam who made contributions to the sacred struggle for the development of the WPK, modeling the revolutionary ranks on the monolithic ideology and the victorious advance of the socialist cause," the KCNA said.

This photo, released by the Korean Central News Agency on May 8, 2024, shows the funeral hall of Kim Ki-nam, former secretary of the Central Committee of the North's ruling Workers' Party. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

Kim Ki-nam, who spent decades overseeing propaganda operations in North Korea, was known to have stepped down from most official posts after he was excluded from a group of top officials sitting on the podium together with the leader in a party plenary meeting in October 2017.

He briefly reappeared in state media photos in January 2019, where he was seen shaking hands with members of an art delegation heading to China. The KCNA mentioned Kim's name first among the officials present at the send-off ceremony at the train station in Pyongyang, even ahead of the leader's influential sister, Kim Yo-jong.

In 2009, Kim Ki-nam led a North Korean delegation organized to pay condolences to late former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who held the first inter-Korean summit with then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the late father of the current North Korean leader, in 2000.