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
- 1920s–1930sGeneral 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
- 1945.08Chaired 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
- 1945.11.03Founded 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
- 1946.01.05Confined to the Koryo Hotel by the Soviet military command and removed from the political stage
- 1946.02Choe 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
- 1918.04Co-founded the Korean Socialist Party in Khabarovsk
- 1918.06–08Organized Korean and international Red Guard units against White and Japanese forces
- 1918.09.04Captured by White and Japanese forces
- 1918.09.16Executed by White Cossacks in Khabarovsk
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
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
