Pak Ui-wan ( ko, 박의완 was a

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 ...

n politician who served as a

Vice Premier of North Korea The Vice Premier of the Cabinet assists the Premier of North Korea in guiding the work of the Cabinet of North Korea. The office is also alternatively known as Deputy Prime Minister of North Korea. First Vice Premier The First Vice Premier of t ...

and member of the

Supreme People's Assembly The Supreme People's Assembly (SPA; ) is the unicameral legislature of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly known as North Korea. It consists of one deputy from each of the DPRK's 687 constituencies, elected to five-year ...

, North Korea's

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...

parliament until he was purged in 1958.

Biography

Born September 19, 1911, in Japanese-controlled Korea, with family moved to the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

and became

Koryo-saram Koryo-saram ( ko, 고려사람; russian: Корё сарам; uk, Корьо-сарам) is the name which ethnic Koreans in the post-Soviet states use to refer to themselves. The term is composed of two Korean words: "", a historical name for ...

. Some say that his name Ui-wan was changed from Russian Ivan, and some say that his original name was Ui-wan. After the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

, he worked as a secretary for the Soviet Youth League. After graduating from the Rostov State University of Railways, he married Alexandra Lee, a Korean. On June 22, 1937 their son Yuri was born, and Alexandra died in 1938. When the forced migration of Koreans began, Pak Ui-wan was forcibly relocated to the

Uzbek SSR Uzbekistan (, ) is the common English name for the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR; uz, Ўзбекистон Совет Социалистик Республикаси, Oʻzbekiston Sovet Sotsialistik Respublikasi, in Russian: Уз� ...

. He later remarried a Russian woman named Natalia Gorbatova. Then, after the defeat of the

Japanese Empire The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...

, he was sent to North Korea under

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

's instructions. Arriving in December 1945 with other communists, he was appointed deputy director of the railway bureau of the Provisional

People's Committee of North Korea The People's Committee of North Korea (Chosŏn'gŭl: 북조선인민위원회) was a provisional government governing the Northern portion of the Korean Peninsula from 1947 until 1948. Established on 21 February 1947 as the successor of the ...

, and in 1947 took all of his family to North Korea. Then he divorced Natalia and marries a Goryeo-in, Pyongyang 6 school principal, Yulia Na Kwak. In September 1948, with the formal establishment of North Korea and the inauguration of the first cabinet, he was appointed as the first minister of transport. was appointed to In February 1951, he served as a member of the funeral commission of

Kim Chaek Kim Chaek (, 14 August 1903 – 31 January 1951) was a North Korean revolutionary, military general, and politician. His real name was Kim Hong-gye (). Life Kim Chaek was born in Sŏngjin, North Hamgyong, Korea, in 1903. He and his family ...

, and in August 1951, he served as a member of the funeral committee of

Ho Hon Ho Hon ( ko, 허헌; 22 July 1885 – 16 August 1951) was a Korean independence activist in Japanese controlled Korea and politician in the early years of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). As a lawyer, he defended indepen ...

. At the end of 1951, after the Ministry of Transport was reorganized into the Ministry of Railways, he was appointed Minister of Railways. In July 1953, Kim Hoe-il ( ko, 김회일) was given the Railway Ministry, but on July 13, he was appointed

deputy prime minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

of North Korea. In 1954 he was appointed Vice Premier and Minister of Light Industry.Reorganization of the cabinet, 23/3/1954
/ref> In April 1956, he was elected as a candidate member of the Standing Committee at the 3rd Party Congress. At a plenary meeting in September 1956 he criticized Kim's policies sought to return to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, but the new Soviet ambassador

Alexander Puzanov Alexander Mikhaylovich Puzanov (russian: Александр Михайлович Пузанов; – 1 March 1998) was a Soviet-Russian statesman who was from 1952 to 1956 the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian SFSR, literally ...

ignored his request. In March 1958, when the 1st Conference of the Workers' Party of North Korea was held, he was attacked fiercely and was expelled along with

Kim Tu-bong Kim Tu-bong (16 February 1889 – March 1958 or later) was the first Chairman of the Workers' Party of North Korea (a predecessor of today WPK) from 1946 to 1949. He was known in Korean history as a linguist, scholar, revolutionary and politic ...

and

O Ki-sop O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), plu ...

. Following the conference, in accordance with the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, he was dismissed from the deputy prime minister and replaced by Ri Ju-yon.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pak, Ui-wan Workers' Party of Korea politicians Members of the Supreme People's Assembly Government ministers of North Korea 1911 births 1960 deaths