From civil-rights lawyer of the March 1st Movement to first Chairman of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly: a progressive nationalist
When he submitted a motion of non-prosecution during the March 1st Movement trial, the Japanese courtroom erupted in protest — and the scene, reported nationwide, made Ho Hon the symbol of the anti-colonial lawyer.
One of colonial Korea's 'three great civil-rights lawyers,' he defended the 47 national representatives of the March 1st Movement and handled pro bono cases for workers and independence activists. Elected chairman of Singanhoe's Central Executive Committee in 1927, he led the united-front anti-Japanese struggle, and after liberation served as Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Korea and chairman of the South Korean Workers' Party before crossing north, becoming the bridge by which Korea's independence movement passed into socialism.
Activities and affiliations
- 1946–1951 Political and party leadership
- 1907– Law and justice · Independent activity
Career Timeline
- 1907Passed the first Korean Empire bar examination
- 1919Defended March 1st Movement leaders; President, Korean Bar Association
- 1927Chairman, Central Executive Committee of Singanhoe
- 1945Vice Chairman, Preparatory Committee; Prime Minister, People's Republic of Korea
- 1946Chairman, South Korean Workers' Party
- 1948Chairman, Supreme People's Assembly; President, Kim Il Sung University
Related historical events
Political activity after liberation and move north
After liberation in 1945, Ho joined Lyuh Woon-hyung's Preparatory Committee for National Construction, became its vice-chairman, and was named prime minister of the People's Republic of Korea in September. When opposition from the US military government and right-wing forces prevented the republic from establishing itself as an effective government, he became chief chairman of the Democratic People's Front in February 1946 and was elected chairman of the South Korean Workers' Party that November. The Academy of Korean Studies' Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describes him as not directly connected to the reconstruction faction of the Communist Party of Korea; it gives no definite date for his move north, estimating it at around 1947. In August 1948 he was elected a delegate to the first Supreme People's Assembly and its chairman in the north; in October he became president of Kim Il Sung University. From June 1949 he chaired the Central Committee of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of Korea. The Academy encyclopedia records that he died of illness during the war in August 1951, while the English Wikipedia account says he drowned in the Chongchon River that month.