Kim Tu-bong
김두봉
Independence activist, linguist, and Yan'an faction leader who served as the first head of state of the DPRK
On the day the People's Assembly adopted the new DPRK flag in July 1948, Kim Tu-bong personally lowered the Taegeukgi and raised its replacement. Barely a year earlier, he had been the man passionately explaining the old flag's philosophical meaning to a skeptical Soviet general.
A Hangul linguist trained under Chu Sigyŏng who led the Korean Independence League in Yan'an. Became the DPRK's first head of state in 1948, though real power lay with Kim Il Sung. Purged and vanished in the 1958 August Faction Incident.
Career timeline
- 1908–1916Studied Hangul under Chu Sigyŏng; helped compile MalMoi dictionary
- 1919Joined March First Movement, then exiled to Shanghai provisional government
- 1920–1930sCombined communist activism with linguistic research in Shanghai
- 1942–1945Founded Korean Independence League in Yan'an; led the Yan'an faction
- 1946.02–08Chairman of the New People's Party of Korea
- 1946.08–1949.06Chairman of the Workers' Party of North Korea Central Committee
- 1948.09–1957.09Chairman of the SPA Standing Committee — first head of state of the DPRK
- 1957–1958Dismissed from all posts over August Faction Incident; disappeared