Choe Yong-gon
최용건
Choi Yong-kun
Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly
In office
20 September 1957 – 28 December 1972
Preceded byKim Tu-bong
Succeeded byHwang Jang-yop
Minister of Defence
In office
2 September 1948 – 20 September 1957
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byKim Kwang-hyop
Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army
In office
2 September 1948 – 4 July 1950
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byKim Il-sung
Personal details
Born(1900-06-21)21 June 1900
Taechon County, North Pyongan, Korean Empire
Died19 September 1976(1976-09-19) (aged 76)
Pyongyang, North Korea
Political partyDemocratic, Workers'
Military service
AllegianceNorth Korea
Branch/serviceKorean People's Army
Years of service1927–1976
RankVice marshal
CommandsSupreme Commander
Battles/warsChinese Civil War
Korean Independence Movement
World War II
Korean War
Korean name
Chosŏn'gŭl
최용건
Hancha
崔庸健
Revised RomanizationChoe Yonggeon
McCune–ReischauerCh'oe Yonggŏn

Choe Yong-gon (Korean: 최용건; 21 June 1900 – 19 September 1976) was the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army from 1948 to 1950, North Korean defence minister from 1948 to 1957, and the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from 1957 to 1972.

Early life and education

Choe was born in Taechon County (태천군, 泰川郡) in North Pyongan, Korea, in 1900. He was educated at two military academies.

Career

Choe's first military deployment was to fight the Chinese Northern Expedition of 1927. He also took part in the Canton Communist riots in December later that year. He moved to Manchuria to form a guerrilla organization and military academy school to trained the anti-Japanese guerrilla army. Choe joined the Chinese Communist Party and the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army in 1936.

He led a guerrilla unit against the Japanese after they occupied Manchuria (Manchukuo) in September 1931. In 1940, Choe and his troops had fled to the Soviet-Manchurian border in the Soviet Union and participated with the 88th Independent Brigade of the Soviet Army.

In 1945, he returned to Korea after Japan was defeated in World War II.

In 1946, he became the chairman of the Korean Democratic Party (KDP) and led this organization to a pro-communist course.[1] He was, however, concurrently secretly a member of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea and tasked with keeping the KDP from becoming an independent political force.[2] Afterwards, he came into more promotions and by February 1948, he was appointed the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army.[1] When the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established in Pyongyang on September 9, 1948, he was appointed the Minister of National Security. He was in fact the senior field commander for all the North Korean armies during the Korean War, from the first invasion of South Korea in June 1950 till the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in July 1953.

In 1953, Choe was promoted to Vice Marshal and was made the Minister of Defence.[1] In September 1957, he was removed from his position as Minister of Defense and made the President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, a largely ceremonial position.[1] In this post, he was North Korea's nominal head of state. He was appointed as Vice President by the Supreme People's Assembly in 1972 and he left the office in 1974.[3][4] He died in Pyongyang in 1976.[5] Following his death he was given a state funeral.[6]

Personal life

In his memoirs, Hwang Jang-yop, a former chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly who defected to South Korea said Choe was famous for being very hard to have close relations with, but in reality he was not that strict.[7]

In 1970 there were reports of his deteriorating health, and after attending in November 1970 the KWP Congress and retaining his Vice-Marshal position, he departed for treatment in the German Democratic Republic.[8]

Works

  • Choi, Yong-kun (1960). Concerning Further Promotion of the Peaceful Unification of the Fatherland: Report Presented by Choi Yong Keun (Choi Yong Kun) at the 8th Session of the 2nd Term of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Nov. 19, 1960. Tokyo: General Association of the Koreans in Japan. OCLC 83502262.
  • — (1962). On Waging a Nation-wide Struggle for the Withdrawal of the U.S. Army From South Korea: Report of President Choi Yong Kun at the 11th Session of the 2nd Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK (June 20, 1962). Tokyo: General Association of the Koreans in Japan. OCLC 2316900.
  • — (1963). Report at the Pyongyang City Celebrations of the 15th Anniversary of the Founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. OCLC 610305536.
  • Liu, Shao-chi; Choi, Yong-kun (1963). Joint statement of Chairman Liu Shao-chi and President Choi Yong Kun. Peking: Foreign Languages Press. OCLC 9504560.

See also

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 Fyodor Tertitskiy (12 June 2014). "An Exception to the Rules of Kimism". DailyNK. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  2. ↑ Lankov, Andrei N. (1999). "Kim Il Sung's Campaign against the Soviet Faction in Late 1955 and the Birth of Chuch'e". Korean Studies. 23 (1): 47. doi:10.1353/ks.1999.0003. ISSN 1529-1529. S2CID 154905899.
  3. ↑ Chiefs of State and Cabinet members of foreign governments / National Foreign Assessment Center. 1973Jan-June. hdl:2027/osu.32435024020067.
  4. ↑ Chiefs of State and Cabinet members of foreign governments / National Foreign Assessment Center. 1974July-Dec. hdl:2027/osu.32435024020059.
  5. ↑ "Choe Yong-Kon". The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (3rd ed.). The Gale Group. 1970–1979.
  6. ↑ Buzo, Adrian (8 September 2017). Politics and Leadership in North Korea: The Guerilla Dynasty. Routledge. ISBN 9781317284970.
  7. ↑ "Seeds of Juche Sown by Sino-Soviet Split", Hwang Jang Yop's memories
  8. ↑ R. S. Milward (Chapter on Korea) (1971). Macadam, Ivison; Grindrod, Muriel; Boas, Ann (eds.). The Annual Register of World Events 1970. 212. Great Britain: St. Martin's Press, Longmans, Green and Co Ltd. p. 312.
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