Kim Hyong-gwon (; 4 November 1905 – 12 January 1936) was a Korean revolutionary. He is known for attacking a Japanese police station in

Japanese-occupied Korea Between 1910 and 1945, Korea was ruled as a part of the Empire of Japan. Joseon Korea had come into the Japanese sphere of influence with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876; a complex coalition of the Meiji government, military, and business offici ...

and subsequently dying in Seoul's

Seodaemun Prison Seodaemun Prison History Hall is a museum and former prison in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It was constructed beginning in 1907. The prison was opened on October 21, 1908, under the name Gyeongseong Gamok. During the early part of the Japa ...

where he was serving his sentence. Kim Hyong-gwon was an uncle of the founding North Korean leader,

Kim Il-sung Kim Il-sung (; , ; born Kim Song-ju, ; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was a North Korean politician and the founder of North Korea, which he ruled from the country's establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of ...

. As such, he is among the most celebrated of the

Kim family The Kim family or Kim clan may refer to: People * The Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il Sung in 1948 * The Gimhae Kim clan associated with the Geumgwan Gaya * The later rulers of Silla, who were mostly members of the ...

members in

North Korean propaganda Propaganda is widely used and produced by the government of North Korea (DPRK). Most propaganda is based on the ''Juche'' ideology and on the promotion of the Workers' Party of Korea. The first syllable of ''Juche'', "ju", means the man; th ...

Kimhyonggwon County Kimhyŏnggwŏn County is a ''kun'', or county, in southeastern Ryanggang province, North Korea. It borders South Hamgyŏng to the south. Previously known as Pungsan, it was renamed by Kim Il Sung in 1990. He named it after his uncle, Kim Hyŏ ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

is named after him.

Personal life

In his youth, Kim Hyong-gwon studied in Sunhwa school near his home in present-day

Mangyongdae Mangyongdae () is a neighborhood in Mangyongdae-guyok, Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korean propaganda claims Mangyongdae is the birthplace of North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, although in his memoirs he wrote that he had been born in the nearby n ...

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...

. Kim was a revolutionary fighter and an active communist in the 1930s. His personality has been described as "hot-tempered". In August 1930, he led a small detachment of guerrillas across the

Amnok The Yalu River, known by Koreans as the Amrok River or Amnok River, is a river on the border between North Korea and China. Together with the Tumen River to its east, and a small portion of Paektu Mountain, the Yalu forms the border between ...

(Yalu) river to

from Manchuria. His small group's actions near Pungsan at that time got noticed by the Japanese press. He captured two Japanese police cars, and both of these acts occurred in mountainous terrain. Some time after attacking a Japanese police station in Pungsan, he was arrested near

Hongwon Hongwŏn County is a county in South Hamgyŏng province, North Korea. It is flanked by the Sea of Japan (East Sea of Korea) to the south, and by the Hamgyŏng Mountains to the north. Physical features The northwest region is particularly mounta ...

. 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 Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

, where anti-Japanese dissidents were detained from 1910 to 1945 in cruel conditions. Kim Il-sung remarks in his autobiography ''

With the Century ''Reminiscences: With the Century'' () is the autobiography of Kim Il-sung, founder and former president of North Korea. The memoirs, written in 1992 and published in eight volumes, retell Kim's life story through his childhood to the time of K ...

'', that it was a corrupt yet close Manchurian local official,

Chae Jin-yong Chae, also spelled Chai, is a Korean family name and an element in some Korean given names. Its meaning differs based on the hanja used to write it. Family name Overview The 2000 South Korean Census found 119,251 people with the family name Chae ...

, who betrayed his uncle and became an informer against him.

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 Kim Hyong-jik (Korean: 김형직; 10 July 1894 – 5 June 1926) was a Korean independence activist during Japanese rule. He was the father of the North Korean founder Kim Il-sung, the paternal grandfather of Kim Jong-il, and a great-g ...

, or great grandfather Kim Ung-u, who is claimed to have been involved in the

General Sherman incident The ''General Sherman'' incident ( ko, 제너럴셔먼호 사건) was the destruction of the American merchant ship '' SS General Sherman'' in the Taedong River during an unsuccessful and illegal attempt by the ship's crew to open up trade with ...

. 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 The Korean independence movement was a military and diplomatic campaign to achieve the independence of Korea from Japan. After the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, Korea's domestic resistance peaked in the March 1st Movement of 1919, which ...

and the revolution. Kim Hyong-gwon was included into the personality cult in 1976.

North Korean media The mass media in North Korea is amongst the most strictly controlled in the world. The constitution nominally provides for freedom of speech and the press. However, the government routinely disregards these rights, and seeks to mold information ...

uses similar honorifics for him as they use with Kim Il-sung,

Kim Jong-il Kim Jong-il (; ; ; born Yuri Irsenovich Kim;, 16 February 1941 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. He led North Korea from the 1994 death of his father Kim ...

Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-un (; , ; born 8 January 1982) is a North Korean politician who has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) since 2012. He is a son of Kim Jong-il, who was North Korea's sec ...

and

Kim Jong-suk Kim Jong-suk (; 24 December 1917Suh Dae-sook. Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988. – 22 September 1949) was a Korean anti-Japanese guerrilla, a Communist activist, North Korean leader Kim Il ...

uses similar honorifics for him as they use with Kim Il-sung,

and

, previously known as Pungsan, in southeastern

Ryanggang Province Ryanggang Province (Ryanggangdo; ko, 량강도, ''Ryanggang-do'', ) is a province in North Korea. The province is bordered by China (Jilin) on the north, North Hamgyong on the east, South Hamgyong on the south, and Chagang on the west. Ryangga ...

, was renamed after him in August 1990. 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 SINPO, an acronym for Signal, Interference, Noise, Propagation, and Overall, is a Signal Reporting Code used to describe the quality of broadcast and radiotelegraph transmissions. SINPFEMO, an acronym for Signal, Interference, Noise, Propagation ...

. 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. A North Korean film '' A Fire Burning All Over the World'' was made in 1977. It deals with both

Kang Pan-sok Kang Pan-sŏk ( ko, 강반석; 21 April 1892 – 31 July 1932) was the mother of North Korean leader Kim Il-sung. Biography She came from the village of Chilgol and raised Kim on a small farm in Mangyongdae, both near Pyongyang. She ac ...

and Kim Hyong-gwon's revolutionary deeds. The film was also the first one to portray Kim Il-sung. In 2010,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

awarded Kim Hyong-gwon the Patriotic Medal, 4th grade of the

Order of Merit for National Foundation The Order of Merit for National Foundation (Hangul: 건국훈장) is one of South Korea's orders of merit. It is awarded by the President of South Korea for "outstanding meritorious services in the interest of founding or laying a foundation for th ...

, for his role in the independence movement apparently without knowing that he was a relative of Kim Il-sung.

Personal life

Legacy

See also

References

Sources

Further reading