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
Korean revolutionary military leader who fought alongside Kim Il Sung in the Manchurian anti-Japanese guerrillas
Kim Il Sung kept a small safe in his office throughout his life. When Kim Jong Il opened it after his father's death in 1994, he found only one photograph inside — a faded picture of Kim Il Sung with Kim Chaek.
Beginning with the Korean Communist Party and Chinese Communist Party in 1920s Manchuria, he committed himself to armed anti-Japanese struggle and rose to command guerrilla operations in the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army alongside Kim Il Sung and Choe Yong-gon, the three known as the 'Manchurian partisan troika.' After returning to Korea in 1945, he became Kim Il Sung's closest comrade, leading the creation of the North Korean branch of the Communist Party and orchestrating the campaign to install Kim as paramount leader. When the DPRK was founded in 1948, he became its first Deputy Premier and Minister of Industry, directing postwar industrial reconstruction. He commanded Korean People's Army forces at the front during the Korean War and died of exhaustion in January 1951; the DPRK posthumously named a city, a university, and a steel complex after him.
Career timeline
- 1927Joined the Korean Communist Party; arrested and imprisoned in the Kando Communist Party incident
- 1930Joined the Chinese Communist Party; Secretary of the Dongjing District Committee
- 1933–1940Political commissar of the 3rd Route Army, Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army; Secretary of the North Manchuria Provincial Committee
- 1942–1945Political commissar, 3rd Battalion, 88th Special Brigade, Soviet Far East
- 1945–1946Led creation of the North Korean Branch of the Communist Party; first president of Pyongyang Academy
- 1946–1948Vice-chairman of the North Korean People's Committee; Political Committee member of the Workers' Party of North Korea
- 1948–1951Deputy Premier and Minister of Industry, concurrently Deputy Minister of National Defence
- 1950–1951Frontline commander of the Korean People's Army during the Korean War
Yan'an faction leader who drove the 1946 New People's Party merger and was purged in the August Faction Incident
At the plenum of 30 August 1956, Ch'oe criticized Kim Il Sung to his face, alongside the Soviet-Korean Pak Ch'ang-ok, over his concentration of personal power. It escalated into the 'August Faction Incident', after which the Yan'an faction was imprisoned or placed under surveillance.
An independence activist and communist, he served as a directing member of the Korean Volunteer Corps, an instructor at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political College, and vice-chairman of the North China Korean Independence League. After liberation he was vice-chairman of the Korean New People's Party, a standing and political committee member of the Workers' Party of North Korea, finance minister and deputy premier. After criticizing Kim Il Sung at the August 1956 plenum, he was purged and imprisoned, and is reported to have died in custody. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture gives 1896–1957, English Wikipedia 1896–1960, and a Soviet document a birth year of 1898. His exact life dates and circumstances of death are disputed.
Career timeline
- 1923Returned home; joined the Korean Labour Mutual Aid Society and the Korean Communist Youth League
- 1928–1935Arrested in the 'Third Communist Party Incident', imprisoned six years, released 1935
- 1936Fled to China and joined the Korean National Revolutionary Party
- 1938Organized the Korean Youth Vanguard League, became a directing member of the Korean Volunteer Corps, and moved to Yan'an late that year as an instructor at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political College
- 1942Founded the North China Korean Independence League; central standing committee member and secretary
- 1945Vice-chairman of the North China Korean Independence League
- 1946.02Vice-chairman of the Korean New People's Party (chairman: Kim Tu-bong)
- 1946.08The merger with the Korean Communist Party formed the Workers' Party of North Korea; standing committee and political committee member
- 1947.02Head of the People's Inspection Bureau of the North Korean People's Committee
- 1948.04Took part in the North-South negotiations
- 1948–1952Minister of Finance
- 1952–1953Deputy premier
- 1953.02Deputy premier and finance minister
- 1955Minister of State Inspection
- 1956.08Criticized Kim Il Sung at the August plenum; the September plenum decided to restore him to the Central Committee
- 1957.09Expelled, purged and imprisoned in Pyongyang. Accounts differ on whether he died in 1957 or 1960.
