Kim Hyong-gwon
Kim Hyong-gwon | |
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![]() Kim Hyong-gwon in prison with a name tag | |
Born | Nam Ri, Kopyong Sub-county, Taedong County, South Pyongan Province, Korea (present day Mangyongdae-guyok, Pyongyang, North Korea)[1] | 4 November 1905
Died | 12 January 1936 | (aged 30) (in captivity)
Nationality | Korean |
Occupation | Guerrilla |
Organization | Young Communist League of Korea[1] |
Korean name | |
Chosŏn'gŭl | |
Hancha | |
Revised Romanization | Gim Hyeonggwon |
McCune–Reischauer | Kim Hyŏnggwŏn[3] |
Kim Hyong-gwon (Korean: 김형권; 4 November 1905 – 12 January 1936) was a Korean revolutionary. He is known for attacking a Japanese police station in Japanese-occupied Korea and subsequently dying in Seoul's Seodaemun Prison where he was serving his sentence.
Kim Hyong-gwon was an uncle of the founding North Korean leader, Kim Il-sung.[1] As such, he is among the most celebrated of the Kim family members in North Korean propaganda. Kimhyonggwon County in North Korea is named after him.
Personal life
![The barracks of Seodaemun Prison during winter.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Seodaemunprisonbarracks.jpg/220px-Seodaemunprisonbarracks.jpg)
In his youth, Kim Hyong-gwon studied in Sunhwa school near his home in present-day Mangyongdae, Pyongyang.[4]
Kim was a revolutionary fighter and an active communist in the 1930s. His personality has been described as "hot-tempered".[5] In August 1930, he led a small detachment of guerrillas across the Amnok (Yalu) river to Japanese-occupied Korea from Manchuria.[1] His small group's actions near Pungsan at that time got noticed by the Japanese press.[6] He captured two Japanese police cars, and both of these acts occurred in mountainous terrain.[7][8] Some time after attacking a Japanese police station in Pungsan, he was arrested near Hongwon.[7] He was sentenced to 15 years in prison when he was 28 years old. He died on 12 January 1936, during his sentence in Seoul's Seodaemun Prison,[9][10][11] where anti-Japanese dissidents were detained from 1910 to 1945 in cruel conditions.[12]
Kim Il-sung remarks in his autobiography With the Century, that it was a corrupt yet close Manchurian local official, Chae Jin Yong, who betrayed his uncle and became an informer against him.[10]
Legacy
Kim Hyong-gwon is among the most important Kim family members in propaganda, and comparable in that context to other prominent family members like Kim Il-sung's father Kim Hyong-jik, or great grandfather Kim Ung-u, who is claimed to have been involved in the General Sherman incident.[3][13] North Korean propaganda insists that most family members were in some way participating in the foundation of the North Korean state and among them Kim Hyong-gwon is portrayed as having been sacrificed for anti-Japanese struggle and the revolution.[3]
Kim Hyong-gwon was included into the personality cult in 1976.[14] North Korean media uses similar honorifics for him as they use with Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un and Kim Jong-suk.[15]
Kimhyonggwon County, previously known as Pungsan, in southeastern Ryanggang Province, was renamed after him in August 1990.[16] There is also a Kim Hyong Gwon Teachers' College named after him, and Hamnam University of Education Nr. 1 was renamed Kim Hyong Gwon University of Education in 1990. Both of them are in Sinpo.[17] Various sites of honor and statues have been made in Kim's memory. Once every five years, a ceremony is held on the days of his death and birth.[3]
A North Korean film A Fire Burning All Over the World was made in 1977, and it deals with both Kang Pan-sok and Kim Hyong-gwon's revolutionary deeds. The film was also the first one to portray Il-sung.[3]
See also
- North Korea's cult of personality
- Gwangju Student Independence Movement
- June 10th Movement
- March 1st Movement
- Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army
References
- ^ a b c d An Indomitable Revolutionary Fighter — Comrade Kim Hyong Gwon 1976, p. [5].
- ^ An Indomitable Revolutionary Fighter — Comrade Kim Hyong Gwon 1976, p. [29].
- ^ a b c d e Jae-Cheon Lim (24 March 2015). Leader Symbols and Personality Cult in North Korea: The Leader State. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-56740-0.
- ^ An Indomitable Revolutionary Fighter — Comrade Kim Hyong Gwon 1976, p. [7].
- ^ Bradley K. Martin (1 April 2007). Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty. St. Martin's Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-1-4299-0699-9.
- ^ An Indomitable Revolutionary Fighter — Comrade Kim Hyong Gwon 1976, p. [14].
- ^ a b An Indomitable Revolutionary Fighter — Comrade Kim Hyong Gwon 1976, p. [12].
- ^ An Indomitable Revolutionary Fighter — Comrade Kim Hyong Gwon 1976, pp. [18–19].
- ^ An Indomitable Revolutionary Fighter — Comrade Kim Hyong Gwon 1976, p. [5], [29].
- ^ a b Cathcart, Adam (14 January 2012). "Historical Allegories and Revolutionary Credentials: Jang Song Taek". Sino-NK. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
- ^ "Kim Il Sung's Life to the Korean War". KoreanHistory.info. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
- ^ "Seodaemun Prison". Lonely Planet. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
- ^ Whyte, Leon (21 March 2014). "Anti-Americanism in South Korea: Why one of our closest allies has mixed feelings". smallcrowdedworld.com. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
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suggested) (help) - ^ Jae-Cheon Lim (September 2010). "Institutionalization of the cult of the Kims: its implications for North Korean political succession" (PDF). ResearchGate. Retrieved 11 July 2015. North Korean media uses similar honorifics for him as they use with Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un and Kim Jong-suk.
- ^ "NK Media Using Honorific Language on Heir Apparent". The Dong-a Ilbo. 5 November 2010. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
- ^ Yonhap News Agency, Seoul (27 December 2002). North Korea Handbook. M.E. Sharpe. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-7656-3523-5.
- ^ Dormels, Rainer (2014). "Profiles of the cities of DPR Korea – Sinpho" (PDF). University of Vienna. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
Sources
- An Indomitable Revolutionary Fighter — Comrade Kim Hyong Gwon. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. 1976. OCLC 3526301.
Further reading
- Kim Il-sung (1994). With the Century. Vol. 1–2. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. OCLC 28377167 Volume 1 chapters 1–3, and volume 2 chapters 4–5.
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Notes:
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