Choe Yong-gon
최용건
The Manchurian guerrilla who became the KPA's first commander and the DPRK's nominal head of state
In December 1955, Choe Yong-gon presided over the trial of Pak Hon-yong and sentenced him to death, rejecting pleas for clemency from Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai.
After military training at Yunnan and Whampoa academies, he led anti-Japanese guerrilla war in Manchuria as chief of staff of the 2nd Route Army and commander of the 7th Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, forming the Manchurian trio with Kim Il Sung and Kim Chaek. Returning in 1945, he played the decisive role in converting Cho Man-sik's Korean Democratic Party to a communist line; upon the DPRK's founding in 1948 he became its first Minister of National Defence and Chief Commander of the Korean People's Army, the KPA's senior field commander during the Korean War. From 1957 to 1972 he chaired the Supreme People's Assembly Standing Committee, the DPRK's nominal head of state, and served as the regime's diplomatic face abroad. He received a state funeral at his death in 1976 and was interred in the Patriotic Martyrs' Cemetery.
Career timeline
- 1923–1924Graduated from Yunnan Military Academy
- 1925–1927Instructor at Whampoa Military Academy
- 1936–1940Chief of Staff, 2nd Route Army & Commander, 7th Army, Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army
- 1942–1945Deputy Chief of Staff, 88th Special Brigade, Soviet Far East
- 1946–1955Chairman, Central Committee of the Korean Democratic Party
- 1948–1957Minister of National Defence & Chief Commander, Korean People's Army
- 1957–1972Chairman, Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly
- 1972–1974Vice President of the DPRK