Kim Ki Nam, the former chief of North Korea’s propaganda apparatus, died on May 7. Although some media outlets were quick to compare Kim’s six-decade career to Joseph Goebbels’s impact on Nazi Germany, Kim’s trajectory and influence in the DPRK is far more complex.

His first big role was as a charge d’affaires in China back in 1957, just when Kim Il Sung was consolidating power by wiping out opposition and distancing North Korea from Soviet influence. 

The early North Korean leadership was a mix of Kim Il Sung’s loyal friends and politicians who weren’t so fond of him. Kim