Kim Ki Nam has one of the toughest jobs in North Korea.
The 82-year-old former professor heads the department in North Korea's ruling party responsible for filling North Koreans' minds with awe, devotion and unswerving respect for the dictatorial Kim dynasty.
His task now: rapidly elevate the country's youthful new leader, Kim Jong Eun, to the status of quasi-deity in the minds of the North Koreans, including the elite, to legitimize the succession and solidify Mr. Kim's rule.
The Propaganda and Agitation department led by Mr. Kim, who is no relation to the ruling patriarchy, has been working on the project since 2009, when Kim Jong Il selected his third son as his successor.
Some of the department's early handiwork includes the outrageous claims of ability often associated with Kim Jong Il and widely ridiculed outside the country.
North Korea's new leader is described in one report from May 2009 as "an excellent general who displays the extraordinary talent of hitting the center of the target no matter how many times he fires."
The current leader's grandfather and founder of North Korea, Kim Il Sung, was said to have made a hand grenade from a pine cone to blow up an American tank.
Then, when Kim Jong Il was born, propagandists reported that the sky was filled with lightning and thunder, as well as a rainbow.
As recently as Wednesday, Korea Central News Agency reported many natural wonders observed around the country, such as the sky turning red and a huge snowstorm suddenly stopping, as the people mourned their dead leader.
Myth-building in North Korea is a serious business. Analysts say it is critical for the regime to ensure that the personality cult of the Kim family remains intact and its rule unchallenged.
Mr. Kim, who has been head of the propaganda department since 1992, had worked at various state media as an editor from 1964 until he joined the ruling party in 1977, according to a South Korean government website. He wasn't interviewed for this article.
North Korean students are taught Revolutionary History from elementary school to university, a subject full of tales that mystify and beatify the Kim dynasty, said Jun Myung-ho, a defector based in Seoul, who worked in North Korea's ruling Workers' Party for nine years before escaping to the South in 2004.
"The regime has to keep doing it, regardless of whether people believe it or not, because they need to establish the legitimacy of the family," said Mr. Jun. He recalls that teachers harshly scolded students with low grades in the subject.
According to Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at think tank Sejong Institute near Seoul, the myth-building process for Kim Jong Eun has been progressing smoothly. But the sudden death of Kim Jong Il has accelerated the need for accounts of the younger Mr. Kim as the rightful heir.
That effort got rolling almost immediately after Pyongyang revealed the demise of the elder Mr. Kim, and has been going strong since then in the state-controlled media.
"No force on earth can check the revolutionary advance of our party, army and people under the wise leadership of Kim Jong Eun," said North Korea's state news agency in one of its first reports following Kim Jong Il's death.
In an editorial Thursday, North Korea's main newspaper Rodong Sinmun referred to Kim Jong Eun as "the outstanding leader of our party, military and people and a great successor.''
Already, songs sing his praise, such as this one: "Cheok, cheok, cheok [marching sound]./ Our general Kim's step is sending the spirits of February high and moving forward./ Cheok, cheok, cheok./ When [he] steps vigorously, all the people follow./ Cheok, cheok, cheok."
It is by no means certain that Kim Ki Nam and his staff can pull off the promotion of Kim Jong Eun as the rightful leader of the North Korean people, at least to the degree required to maintain power. Making the task harder is Kim Jong Eun's youth. He is thought to be 28 years old, in a culture that recognizes seniority based on age.
Kim Man-soo, another North Korean defector, says the impact of state propaganda has weakened significantly since Kim Jong Il took the reins of power in 1994 after his father, Kim Il Sung, died.
"It worked only until Kim Il Sung died. Kim Jong Il failed to win the hearts and minds of people as economic conditions got worse and worse. People don't believe it anymore," said Mr. Kim, who worked at a hospital before he left North Korea in 2006.
For Kim Ki Nam, that is the challenge. Any significant erosion of the mythology increases the risk that key senior figures, particularly in the military, might challenge the "great successor."
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