Pioneer of Korean communism who fused the Bolshevik revolution with national liberation against Japanese rule
On his deathbed he declared: 'I die without seeing the Korean revolution succeed. Comrades, you must establish a Korean Soviet Republic.'
A pioneer of Korean communism who transformed from a Korean Empire army officer into a socialist revolutionary, becoming the first to fuse Marxism with the Korean national liberation struggle. He founded the Korean Socialist Party in 1918, served as prime minister of the Korean Provisional Government where he championed armed resistance, and after breaking with Syngman Rhee led the Korean Communist Party (Shanghai faction) in pursuit of combining national liberation with class revolution.
Career timeline
- 1895–1902Graduated from Imperial Military Academy; army major and Ganghwa garrison commander
- 1906–1911Co-founded New People's Association; founded Bochang School; jailed in 105-Man Incident
- 1913–1917Exiled to Primorsky Krai and Manchuria; established military academy, trained independence forces
- 1918Founded Korean Socialist Party in Khabarovsk; chairman
- 1919–1921Prime Minister of the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai
- 1921Founded Korean Communist Party (Shanghai faction)
- 1922–1935Comintern liaison; Far East Korean director of MOPR
Kodang Cho Man-sik, the Korean Democratic Party leader removed from the northern political stage in 1946
On 30 December 1945 Cho's party adopted its anti-trusteeship resolution despite pressure from the Soviet military command, and on 5 January 1946 the command confined him to the Koryo Hotel. From this point nationalists disappeared from the northern political stage and the left took the lead.
Cho Man-sik (1883-1950), pen name Kodang, was born in Kangso, South Pyongan Province, and worked as an educator, Presbyterian elder, journalist and politician. He graduated from Meiji University in 1913, taught at Osan School and became its headmaster in 1915, and later headed the Pyongyang YMCA, the Korean Product Promotion Society and the Chosun Ilbo. He pursued anti-Japanese activity on Gandhi's nonviolent line. After liberation he chaired the South Pyongan Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence and then the South Pyongan People's Political Committee, a left-right coalition that also included the South Pyongan Communist Party. He founded the Korean Democratic Party on 3 November 1945, and on 5 January 1946 the Soviet military command confined him to the Koryo Hotel. No confirmed reports of him remain and his death is reported rather than established.
Career timeline
- 1913~1915Graduated from Meiji University in 1913, became a teacher at Osan School that year and its headmaster in 1915, working in national education
- 1920~30년대General secretary of the Pyongyang YMCA and elder at Sanjonghyon Church; president of the Korean Product Promotion Society, chair of the Sin'ganhoe Pyongyang branch and president of the Chosun Ilbo
- 1945.8Chaired the South Pyongan Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence, then the South Pyongan People's Political Committee, a left-right coalition
- 1945.10~11Land reform and tenancy disputes over the 7:3 system exposed his position; right-wing members left the committee for the South, and on 24 November its name dropped "political", turning it into a left-led body
- 1945.11.3Founded the Korean Democratic Party and was elected its leader on an anti-trusteeship line
- 1945.12.30His party's central committee adopted an anti-trusteeship resolution rejecting trusteeship outright
- 1946.1.5Confined to the Koryo Hotel by the Soviet military command and removed from the political stage
- 1946.2Choe Yong-gon took over the party, and its first congress on 24 February elected him leader
- 1948~1950Kept in detention without trial amid failed exchange talks; confirmed reports end and his death is reported and presumed, its date and circumstances not established
The first Korean communist, who gave her life bridging the Russian Revolution and Korean liberation
On September 16, 1918, dragged before Ataman Kalmykov's White Cossacks to be shot, her final cry: 'Freedom and independence for Korea!'
Born to Korean migrants in Siberia, she joined the Bolsheviks in 1916, becoming the first Korean communist. Dispatched to the Far East on Lenin's orders, she served as Commissar of Foreign Affairs for the Khabarovsk Soviet, co-founded the Korean Socialist Party with Yi Tong-hwi, and organized Korean Red Guard units against White and Japanese forces before her execution in 1918 at 33, a symbolic figure bridging the Russian Revolution and the Korean independence struggle.
Career timeline
- 1916Joined the RSDLP(B)
- 1917Secretary, Khabarovsk Bolshevik branch & Commissar of Foreign Affairs, Far Eastern Council of People's Commissars
- 1918.4Co-founded the Korean Socialist Party in Khabarovsk
- 1918.6–8Organized Korean and international Red Guard units against White and Japanese forces
- 1918.9.4Captured by White and Japanese forces
- 1918.9.16Executed by White Cossacks in Khabarovsk
He met Lenin and Sun Yat-sen, then staked everything on left-right unity: the last Korean unificationist before partition
“A revolutionary does not die in bed. I will die in the street.” He said this to his children after surviving multiple assassination attempts. On 19 July 1947, at the Hyehwa-dong rotary, a bullet from the White Shirts Society found him.
In 1918 he founded the New Korean Youth League and sparked the March First Movement through the February 8 Declaration of Independence. He co-founded the Korean Provisional Government, met Lenin and Trotsky in Moscow (1922), and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party at Sun Yat-sen's invitation. In August 1945 he secured peaceful transfer of authority from Japan's governor-general, formed the Committee for Preparation of Korean Independence, and became vice-chair of the People's Republic of Korea. In 1946–47 he led the left-right cooperation movement with Kim Kyu-sik, the last serious attempt at a unified Korea, before being assassinated by a right-wing terrorist. He is officially honored by both South and North Korea.
Career timeline
- 1918Founded New Korean Youth League in Shanghai; became its leader
- 1919Led the February 8 Declaration of Independence; Deputy Foreign Minister of the Korean Provisional Government
- 1920–1922Joined Koryŏ Communist Party (Shanghai faction); met Lenin and Trotsky at the Congress of the Peoples of the East in Moscow
- 1925–1929Joined Chinese Nationalist Party at Sun Yat-sen's invitation; participated in First United Front
- 1933–1936President of Chosun JoongAng Ilbo; Chairman of Joseon Sports Council
- 1944Founded the secret Korean Restoration Brotherhood; built nationwide network
- 1945.8–9Chairman, Committee for Preparation of Korean Independence; Vice-Chair, People's Republic of Korea
- 1946–1947Led left-right cooperation movement with Kim Kyu-sik; Chairman, Labor People's Party
Internationalist socialist who fought across the Korean independence movement and the Chinese Revolution, subject of Song of Arirang
"Even in death, I want to see Korea's independence and the victory of the socialism I have believed in all my life." — to Nym Wales in Yan'an, 1937
Kim San was an internationalist socialist who fought across the Korean independence movement and the Chinese Revolution. He left twenty-two interviews with American journalist Nym Wales in Yan'an that became Song of Arirang (1941), a first-person account of that struggle; in 1938 he was executed on false spy charges and rehabilitated by the CCP in 1983.
Career timeline
- 1919Participated in March First Movement; detained by Japanese police for 3 days
- 1921Studied in Tokyo, then moved to China
- 1922Joined the Chinese Communist Party
- 1923Joined Communist Youth League; published magazine Revolution
- 1925–1927Studied at Whampoa Academy & Sun Yat-sen University; fought in Guangzhou Uprising
- 1936Founded Alliance for Liberation of the Korean People in Shanghai; elected Korean revolutionary representative
- 1937Lecturer at Yan'an Anti-Japanese Military Academy; interviewed by Nym Wales
- 1938Arrested by Kang Sheng's security apparatus; executed on false espionage charges
Principal organizer of the Workers' Party of Korea and leader of its early Soviet faction
At the Second Party Congress in March 1948, Ho Ka-i took the podium unannounced and rebuked officials who had apologized without admitting wrongdoing: "An apology that does not own the mistake is empty words" — setting a new standard of party discipline.
A Soviet Korean revolutionary dispatched to Pyongyang in 1945 by the Soviet occupation authorities, he became the principal organizer in the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea. As first secretary and second vice-chairman of the Central Committee, he pursued a Soviet-style elite cadre party and, during the Korean War, led a sweeping purge that expelled over 450,000 of the party's 600,000 members. His clash with Kim Il Sung over whether to build a mass party or a vanguard party led to his removal in 1951, making him the emblematic figure of the Soviet faction's rise and fall in the early DPRK.
Career timeline
- 1930Joined the CPSU(B)
- 1932Secretary of the Far Eastern Komsomol committee
- 1937Purged from the Party; deported to Central Asia with other Soviet Koreans
- 1939Reinstated in the Party; resumed cadre work in Uzbekistan
- 1946Member of the Political Committee and head of the Organization Department, Workers' Party of North Korea
- 1948Vice-chairman of the Workers' Party of North Korea and chairman of the Inspection Committee
- 1949First Secretary and Second Vice-chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee
- 1951Dismissed after confrontation with Kim Il Sung; demoted to Deputy Premier
Journalist who headed propaganda for the Pyongnam CPKI
In 1945 in P'yŏngyang he was propaganda chief of the South P'yŏngan Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence and took part as it became the South P'yŏngan People's Political Committee under Soviet prompting. No source records him personally contacting the Soviet command.
Han Chae-dok (韓載德, 1911–1970) was a journalist from Sŏngch'ŏn in South P'yŏngan Province. Under colonial rule he reported for Chosŏn Chungang Ilbo as its Tokyo correspondent and later for P'yŏngyang Maeil Sinmun, and in 1933 he brought out the literary journal Chiptan with the poet Im Hwa. In 1945 he was propaganda chief of the South P'yŏngan Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence and took part as Soviet pressure reorganized it into the South P'yŏngan People's Political Committee. He edited P'yŏngyang Minbo that year, and from 1946 served as secretary-general of the North Korean League of Literature and Arts and as editor-in-chief of Minju Chosŏn. After heading the Korean Central News Agency's domestic news department, he was dispatched to Japan in 1953; in 1959 he defected to the Republic of Korea, working there as an anti-communist researcher and writer until his death.
Career timeline
- 1933Brought out the literary journal Chiptan with the poet Im Hwa
- 일제 강점기Tokyo correspondent for Chosŏn Chungang Ilbo; reporter for P'yŏngyang Maeil Sinmun
- 1945Propaganda chief of the South P'yŏngan Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence; editor-in-chief of P'yŏngyang Minbo
- 1946Joined the Korean Communist Party; secretary-general of the North Korean League of Literature and Arts; editor-in-chief of Minju Chosŏn
- 1953After heading the Korean Central News Agency's domestic news department, dispatched to Japan
- 1959Defected to the Republic of Korea; worked at the Institute for Communist Bloc Research
The Soviet-Korean general who signed the Korean Armistice at Panmunjom
At Panmunjom on 27 July 1953, General Nam Il and Lieutenant General Harrison barely acknowledged each other as they signed eighteen copies of the armistice. In those ten minutes that stopped three years of war, he was the face of North Korea.
A Koryo-saram born in the Russian Far East, he was deported with his family to Central Asia in 1937 and served as a Soviet Army officer at Stalingrad and the Battle of Berlin. Dispatched to northern Korea in 1946, he became a close aide to Kim Il Sung, and when the Korean War broke out he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Korean People's Army. From 1951 he led the communist delegation at the Panmunjom armistice talks for two years and on 27 July 1953 signed the Korean Armistice Agreement as the KPA's senior delegate, becoming the face of North Korea to the world. After the war he served as Foreign Minister and Deputy Premier, surviving the purges that eliminated most of his Soviet-Korean colleagues, but died in a suspicious car crash in 1976.
Career timeline
- 1939–1946Teacher and education official in USSR; served as Soviet Army captain in the German-Soviet War
- 1946–1950Dispatched to northern Korea, rose to Deputy Minister of Education
- 1950–1953KPA Chief of Staff; chief communist delegate at armistice talks
- 1953Signed the Korean Armistice Agreement for the KPA, 27 July
- 1953–1959Minister of Foreign Affairs
- 1957–1976Deputy Premier of the DPRK Cabinet
- 1966–1972Minister of Railways; Chairman of the State Construction Committee
- 1972–1976State Administrative Council Vice Premier; Chairman of the State Light Industry Committee
Founder of North Korea's state security and enforcer of its political repression
Arrival dates conflict: Russian Wikipedia and Lankov say 1946 (Lankov: September), English Wikipedia says October 1945. By 1947 he already headed the state protection (political police) department, and Lankov considers it likely he was the first head of North Korean state security.
A Koryo-saram from the Russian Empire whose birthplace is undocumented and whose birth year sources give as 1912, 1913 or 1914. He worked in the Soviet NKVD and intelligence agencies. Russian Wikipedia and Lankov date his arrival to 1946, English Wikipedia to October 1945. By 1947 he already headed the state protection (political police) department, and in September 1948 became Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Director of the Political Security Bureau, though Lankov holds he was never again allowed to control the political police. He held the security portfolio as Minister of Social Security (March/May 1951) and Interior Minister until November 1960. Russian Wikipedia describes him both as organizer of the North's repression system and as an executor who carried out the leadership's directives. Of the Soviet faction, he escaped the purges and died on 18 July 1992.
Career timeline
- 1937–1944Deported to Kazakhstan, then investigator in Kzyl-Orda and prosecutor's office work in Kzyl-Orda and Taldy-Kurgan oblasts, 1942–1944 (Russian Wikipedia); joined the party in 1940. Lankov says his record before 1946 is undocumented
- 1947Head of the state protection (political police) department, Interior Bureau, North Korean People's Committee (Lankov). English Wikipedia has him as Director-General of the Interior Affairs Bureau from May 1947, which does not fit the bureau-under-ministry structure after 1948
- 1948Supreme People's Assembly deputy (Russian Wikipedia)
- 1948년 9월–1951년 2/3월Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Director of the Political Security Bureau (English Wikipedia). Per Lankov he was afterwards never allowed to control the political police again
- 1951년 3월/5월–1952년Minister of Social Security (the Political Security Bureau was reorganized as the Ministry of Social Security). March per English Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture; May per English Wikipedia's Ministry of Social Security article
- 1952년 10월–1960년 11월Minister of Interior (the Ministry of Social Security was merged back into the Ministry of Internal Affairs)
- 1956년 8월As Minister of Internal Affairs during the August faction incident mobilized the police to monitor Pyongyang and led the investigation of the 'factionalists' (English Wikipedia). The same article also records a claim that he was abroad at the time
- 1956–1980Member of the WPK Central Committee (elected April 1956; reelected November 1970 and October 1980)
- 1960년 11월–1972년Deputy Director of the Central Court; from November 1966 information director of the party Liaison Bureau
- 1972년 12월–1992년President of the Central Court (reappointed 1982 and 1986, in office until his death)
