Kim was born in
North Hamgyong Province as the eldest son of
Kim Il Sung's trusted general
Kim Chaek. He attended North Korea's most prestigious schools for cadres, including
Mangyongdae Revolutionary School and
Kim Il Sung University, and started working in the
Workers' Party of Korea from the late 1940s. In 1963, he was appointed general to serve as deputy director of the
General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army to 1968, where he worked to consolidate Kim Il Sung's political control over the army. In 1968 he was made an alternate member of the
WPK Central Committee (promoted to full member at the 5th Party Congress in 1970) and director of the
Propaganda and Agitation Department, where he worked closely with
Kim Jong Il. As the propaganda department fell under the future leader's control, Kim was transferred to director of the Culture Department in 1971 and president of the Kim Il Sung Higher Party School in 1976, but then he apparently fell out of favor and was exiled as ambassador to
Ethiopia. He also served as chairman of the Deputies' Credential Screening Committee of the
Supreme People's Assembly for two terms (1998–2003, and 2009–2013), himself being a deputy since 1967. In 2010 he was transferred to chairman of the WPK Central Control Commission and promoted to the top decision-making
Politburo. Although he was ranked number 7 in the
committee that organized the funeral of Kim Jong Il in December 2011, he kept a low profile under
Kim Jong Un, mainly disappearing from public after summer 2012. ==Death==