Summary
Kim Chon-hae (Korean: 김천해; Hanja: 金天海; RR: Gim Cheon-hae, Japanese reading: Kin Tenkai; 10 May 1898 – c. 1969) was a Zainichi Korean who was a leading figure in the Japanese Communist Party and a founder of the pro-communist Chōren, predecessor of the modern Chongryon. He was subsequently a politician in North Korea, holding posts connected to the Workers' Party of Korea.
| Kim Chon-hae | |
 | |
| Korean name | |
|---|---|
| Hangul | 김천해 |
| Hanja | 金天海 |
| Revised Romanization | Gim Cheon-hae |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kim Ch'ŏn-hae |
| Art name | |
| Hangul | 김학의 |
| Hanja | 金鶴儀 |
| Revised Romanization | Gim Hak-ui |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kim Hak-ŭi |
| Japanese name: Kin Tenkai (金天海) | |
History edit
Born in 1898 at Ulsan, in 1920 he moved to Japan and studied mathematics at Nihon University in Tokyo. While there, he organized a Korean workers' movement and was elected chairman of the Federal Union of Zainichi Koreans.[1] Detained as a political prisoner, he was released on 10 October 1945 after Japan's defeat in the Second World War, and became a member of the executive committee of the JCP.[2]
Although Chōren was founded as a non-political organization, his appointment as supreme adviser ensured its drift toward the left.[2] Under Kim's influence, the League purged its anti-communist members and in February 1946 it joined the Korean Democratic National Front.[3] In 1951, Edward Wagner described Kim as "the man who probably is to be credited more than any other with shaping the League's political orientation and preserving its undeviating character".[4]
He subsequently moved to North Korea in 1950 and became a member of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea,[5] and from April 1956 he served as chairman of the Fatherland Front.[6] He remained in the Front's presidium through the first half of the 1960s.[7] North Korean official sources state that Kim died in 1969,[8] but the actual date and circumstances of his death are unknown.[5]
References edit
- ^ Kim, Hak-jun (2008). 북한의 역사 제2권: 미소냉전과 소련군정 아래서의 조선민주주의인민공화국 건국 1946년 1월 ~ 1948년 9월 [A History of North Korea, Vol. 2: The Establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea under the Evolution of the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Cold War and the Soviet Military Rule (January 1946–September 1948)] (in Korean). Seoul National University Press. p. 78. ISBN 9788952107763.
- ^ a b Chapman, David (2007). Zainichi Korean Identity and Ethnicity. Routledge. p. 26. ISBN 9781134092093.
- ^ Chapman 2007, p. 27.
- ^ Wagner, Edward W. (1951). The Korean Minority in Japan, 1904-1950. International Secretariat, Institute of Pacific Relations – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Kim, p. 79.
- ^ Lee, Chong-sik; Scalapino, R. A. (1972). Communism in Korea: Part I: The Movement. University of California Press. p. 490. ISBN 9788933700013.
- ^ Lee & Scalapino 1972, p. 519.
- ^ White paper on human rights in North Korea, 1999. Research Institute for National Unification. 1998. p. 147. ISBN 9788987509389.