Activities and affiliations

What people did, and whom they served in that activity.

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Communist Party of Korea people 1

Communist Party of Korea ×

Pak Hon-yong

박헌영
Political and party leadership Communist Party of Korea North Korea North Korea 1900–1955 ✕ Executed

Architect of the Korean Communist Party's rebirth; leader of the Workers' Party of South Korea

At his 1927 trial in Sinuiju, he ate his own excrement in court to feign insanity, securing medical release before escaping to Moscow.

The foremost leader of Korea's communist movement from the colonial era through liberation. He rebuilt the Communist Party of Korea and led the Workers' Party of South Korea, but after defecting north he was outmaneuvered by Kim Il-sung and executed as the scapegoat for the Korean War's defeat.

Career timeline
  • 1921Joined Korean Communist Party (Irkutsk faction) in Shanghai
  • 1922Secretary of Korean Communist Youth League; attended Far East Peoples' Congress in Moscow
  • 1925Co-founded Communist Party of Korea; General Secretary of Korean Komsomol
  • 1928–1930Studied at International Lenin School, Moscow; joined CPSU(B)
  • 1931–1940Comintern Eastern Secretariat cadre; led underground organizing in Shanghai and Korea
  • 1945Rebuilt Communist Party of Korea; became its leader and General Secretary
  • 1946–1949Founded Workers' Party of South Korea; Vice Chairman (de facto leader)
  • 1948–1953Deputy Premier and first Foreign Minister of the DPRK