Kim Tu-bong (16 February 1889 – March 1958 or later) was the first Chairman of the

Workers' Party of North Korea The Workers' Party of North Korea () was a communist party in North Korea from 1946 to 1949 and was a predecessor of the current Workers' Party of Korea. It was founded at a congress on 28–30 August 1946, by the merger of the northern branch ...

(a predecessor of today WPK) from 1946 to 1949. He was known in

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 ** ...

history as a

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

, scholar, revolutionary and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

. His most famous work was under Ju Sigyeong; later, after participating in the

March 1st Movement The March 1st Movement, also known as the Sam-il (3-1) Movement (Hangul: 삼일 운동; Hanja: 三一運動), was a protest movement by Korean people and students calling for independence from Japan in 1919, and protesting forced assimilation ...

, he with other Korean leaders of the time established a provisional

government-in-exile A government in exile (abbreviated as GiE) is a political group that claims to be a Sovereign state, country or semi-sovereign state's legitimate government, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Govern ...

in China, and because of his communist beliefs he played an important role in the early North Korean communist government. He and other members of the

Yan'an faction The Yan'an faction () were a group of pro-China communists in the North Korean government after the division of Korea following World War II. The group was involved in a power struggle with pro-Soviet factions but Kim Il-sung was eventually able ...

formed the New People's Party when they returned from exile. After the New People's Party merged into the Workers Party of North Korea (WPNK) in 1946 at the 1st WPNK Congress, he became WPNK Chairman. He was the first

head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...

( Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly) of

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 Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

from 1948 to 1957. He is most remembered in South Korea for his efforts in establishing the Korean linguistic field and especially that of

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The le ...

. Much of his work both political and linguistically was done while living in China with the exiled government of Korea. He is also known by his pen name Baekyeon. He was

purge In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertak ...

d by

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 ...

in 1957.

Early childhood and education

Born on 2 February 1889, in South Korea's South Gyeongsang Province, near modern-day

Pusan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, ...

, he spent his early years being homeschooled during the time of imperial rule. He would move to

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 of ...

at the age of 20 (1908) to attend both Geho School and Baechae School and in that same year graduate from Bogo High School. While he was in

he would join the Korea Youth organization in 1913 and the following year (1914) leave Baechae School. He was also an editor for the magazine.

Early linguistic work

After graduating from Bosungkobo (Bosung College) in 1908, Kim Tu-bong worked closely with a linguistics professor from Bosungkobo named Ju Sigyeong, who was at that time beginning his work in the study of

, for which his name would later be known, as he would dedicate his life to bring it about (the Korean script made by King Sae Jeong during the 15th century). He also worked as a teacher. In 1916 he spent a majority of his time working on compiling MalMooe, the first Korean dictionary.

Shanghai and the exiled Korean government

300px, Kim Tu-bong (right) sitting next to Kim Il-sung (center) After the

(1 March 1919) he and other members of the independence club fled into China and in April 1919 set up a

provisional government A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or ...

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 flowin ...

. During this time he was first exposed to

Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

and eventually accepted it in 1920 after first supporting the Democratic Party. In 1924 he was entrusted with the department of children education and schooling where he served as the president and also taught both

and Korean History. After the Japanese invaded China he and other members of the Korean government in

fled to

Yan'an Yan'an (; ), alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan (formerly Bao'an) ...

, headquarter of

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

, and there Kim would become the head of the independence club and became a very important figure in combining the conflicting views of both communist and democratic ideas.

Return home and the new government

The December following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and the Japanese's surrender (15 August 1945) Kim Tu-bong and other members returned to the then-divided Korea. Like many other Communist-minded people of the time, Kim Tu-bong and other Communist leaders took residence in what is now

under the Soviet occupation. In February 1946 Kim Tu-bong became the chairman of the new People's Party. Later that year in August it merged to form the Workers' Party. He would become the chairman in 1948, though from the outset the real power was held by Premier Kim Il-sung. Kim Tu-bong designed the new flag that is still used in North Korea today in an effort to throw off what he saw as feudal rule. Kim Il-sung became chairman of the Workers' Party after it merged with its southern counterpart in 1949, thus becoming in name as well as in fact the country's leader. In most Communist states, the party leader is understood to be the most powerful man in the country.

Disappearance and death

After 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 ...

Kim Tu-bong had served his usefulness in the government, and, whether real or imagined, many scholars believe he had become a perceived threat to Kim Il-sung's dictatorship. Rumors began that it had to do with a scandal, as he had married a much younger woman later in life. Whatever the reason, he was purged in March 1958, accused of involvement in the 1956

August Faction Incident The August Faction Incident ( ko, 8월 종파 사건), officially called the "Second Arduous March", was an attempted removal of Kim Il-sung from power by leading North Korean figures from the Soviet-Korean faction and the Yan'an faction, with ...

. Like many others of Kim Il-sung's political opponents, he disappeared with no records to indicate whether he had been sentenced to hard labor or exile. He is believed either to have been executed or to have died some time in the 1960s in internal exile.

References

*Dae-Sook Suh. ''Kim Il Sung: The North Korean Leader''. Columbia University Press, 1988. pg. 351 *n.d. ''Kim Dubong (김두봉).'' Naver encolopidia. 20 November 2013. http://terms.naver.com/.

External links

"Kim Tu-bong and Historical Linguistics" by Andrei Lankov
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Tu-Bong 1889 births Year of death unknown Anti-revisionists Korean communists Korean independence activists Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly Heads of state of North Korea New People's Party (Korea) politicians North Korean atheists Leaders of the Workers' Party of Korea and its predecessors Members of the 1st Supreme People's Assembly Members of the 2nd Supreme People's Assembly Linguists Members of the 1st Central Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea Members of the 2nd Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Members of the 1st Political Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea Members of the 1st Standing Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea Members of the 2nd Political Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Members of the 2nd Standing Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Flag designers