Ri Yong (

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

: 이영;

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...

:李英; 1 April 1889 – 13 August 1960) was a social activist in

Korea under Japanese rule 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 offic ...

, communist activist, and politician of the

Democratic People's Republic of 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 Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...

Early life

Youth and middle age

Ri was born in Naha-daeri, Bukcheong-myeon, Bukcheong-gun, Hamgyeong-do, Korea, and spent his early childhood in Hamheung. In 1912, he traveled to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, where he joined an independence movement. He enrolled at Nankai Business School in 1913, but dropped out in 1914, and returned to Korea. In 1919, he participated in the March 1st Movement in Bukcheong, Hamgyeongnam-do. He was arrested, and remained in prison in Seoul until 1920. The following year, he served as a member of the Seoul Youth Association's Beginner Administrative Committee. He was again arrested in 1928, and spent four years in prison before being released in 1932. From 1933 he held an administrative position within the Communist Party of Korea, where he rose to an advisory role in 1938.

After liberation

During the 1945 partitioning of Korea into North and South, Ri was in the American-occupied South. In December 1946, however, he traveled to the Soviet-occupied North, where he served as the deputy director of Planning at the Central People's Committee. After the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on 9 September 1948, he was elected to the post of Vice Chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly of the North Korean People's Republic of Korea. On 1 December 1953, following the conclusion of the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

, he was elected

Chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly The Chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly () is the presiding officer of the Supreme People's Assembly, the legislature of North Korea.Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Article 94 The Supreme People's Ass ...

, and served as a member of the Supreme Council of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland. Ri died on 13 August 1960 at the age of 71, and was buried in the Patriotic Martyrs' Tomb of North Korea.

References

External links

Doosan Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ri, Yong 1889 births 1960 deaths Korean communists Workers' Party of Korea politicians