Heroic Corps founder who evolved from anarchist bombings to DPRK cabinet, lone figure spanning the Korean revolutionary spectrum
On first meeting Kim Ik-sang in Beijing, Kim Won-bong told him: 'Freedom is won by our strength and our blood… We must be the first to shed it.' Kim Ik-sang joined the Heroic Corps on the spot and weeks later walked into the Japanese Government-General building in Seoul and threw a bomb.
Anarchist militant who founded the Heroic Corps (Ŭiyŏltan) in 1919 and led a six-year campaign of bombings and assassinations against Japanese colonial authorities. After military training at the Whampoa Academy, he founded the Korean National Revolutionary Party (1935) to build a united front, commanded the Korean Volunteer Corps, and later joined the Provisional Government as Deputy Commander of the Korean Liberation Army and Minister of Military Affairs. Following liberation he pursued left-right cooperation, but after Yeo Un-hyeong's assassination he joined the 1948 North-South talks and remained in the DPRK as State Inspection Commissioner and Minister of Labor until his purge in 1958. His trajectory, from anarchist bombings to united-front politics to DPRK cabinet, makes him the only figure to span the entire Korean revolutionary spectrum.
Career Timeline
- 1919Founded the Heroic Corps, became its leader (Ŭibaek)
- 1926Enrolled in Whampoa Military Academy, 4th class
- 1935Founded the Korean National Revolutionary Party
- 1938Organized the Korean Volunteer Corps, became commander
- 1944Minister of Military Affairs, Provisional Govt.; Deputy Commander, Korean Liberation Army
- 1948State Inspection Commissioner, DPRK
- 1952Minister of Labor, DPRK
- 1957Vice Chairman, SPA Standing Committee