Kim Hyong-gwon

Kim Hyong-gwon (Korean: 김형권; 4 November 1905 – 12 January 1936) was a Korean revolutionary. He is known for attacking a Japanese police station in Japanese-occupied Korea and subsequently dying in Seoul's Seodaemun Prison where he was serving his sentence.

In this Korean name, the family name is Kim.
Kim Hyong-gwon
김형권
Kim Hyong-gwon in prison with a name tag
Born(1905-11-04)4 November 1905
Nam Ri, Kopyong Sub-county, Taedong County, South Pyongan Province, Korean Empire
Died12 January 1936(1936-01-12) (aged 30) (in captivity)
Seodaemun Prison, Seoul, Korea[1]
NationalityKorean
OccupationGuerrilla
OrganizationYoung Communist League of Korea[2]
Parent(s)Kim Bo-hyon (father)
Lee Bo-ik (mother)
RelativesKim dynasty
Korean name
Chosŏn'gŭl
Hancha
Revised RomanizationGim Hyeonggwon
McCune–ReischauerKim Hyŏnggwŏn[3]

Kim Hyong-gwon was an uncle of the founding North Korean leader, Kim Il Sung.[2] As such, he is among the most celebrated of the Kim family members in North Korean propaganda. Kimhyonggwon County in North Korea is named after him.

Personal life
The barracks of Seodaemun Prison during winter.
Seodaemun Prison, where Kim Hyong-gwon died, was used for keeping anti-colonial activists in custody.

In his youth, Kim Hyong-gwon studied in Sunhwa school near his home in present-day Mangyongdae, Pyongyang.[4]

Kim was a revolutionary fighter and an active communist in the 1930s. His personality has been described as "hot-tempered".[5] In August 1930, he led a small detachment of guerrillas across the Amnok (Yalu) river to Japanese-occupied Korea from Manchuria.[2] His small group's actions near Pungsan at that time got noticed by the Japanese press.[6] He captured two Japanese police cars, and both of these acts occurred in mountainous terrain.[7][8] Some time after attacking a Japanese police station in Pungsan, he was arrested near Hongwon.[7] 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's Seodaemun Prison,[9][10][11] where anti-Japanese dissidents were detained from 1910 to 1945 in cruel conditions.[12]

Kim Il Sung remarks in his autobiography With the Century, that it was a corrupt yet close Manchurian local official, Chae Jin-yong, who betrayed his uncle and became an informer against him.[10]

Legacy
Bust at the Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery

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, or great grandfather Kim Ung-u, who is claimed to have been involved in the General Sherman incident.[3][13] 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 and the revolution.[3]

Kim Hyong-gwon was included into the personality cult in 1976.[14] North Korean media uses similar honorifics for him as they use with Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un and Kim Jong-suk.[15]

Kimhyonggwon County, previously known as Pungsan, in southeastern Ryanggang Province, was renamed after him in August 1990.[16] 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.[17] 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.[3]

A North Korean film A Fire Burning All Over the World was made in 1977. It deals with both Kang Pan-sok and Kim Hyong-gwon's revolutionary deeds. The film was also the first one to portray Kim Il Sung.[3]

In 2010, South Korea awarded Kim Hyong-gwon the Patriotic Medal, 4th grade of the Order of Merit for National Foundation, for his role in the independence movement apparently without knowing that he was a relative of Kim Il Sung.[18]

See also

References
  1. An Indomitable Revolutionary Fighter — Comrade Kim Hyong Gwon 1976, p. [29].
  2. An Indomitable Revolutionary Fighter — Comrade Kim Hyong Gwon 1976, p. [5].
  3. Jae-Cheon Lim (24 March 2015). Leader Symbols and Personality Cult in North Korea: The Leader State. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-56740-0.
  4. An Indomitable Revolutionary Fighter — Comrade Kim Hyong Gwon 1976, p. [7].
  5. Bradley K. Martin (1 April 2007). Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty. St. Martin's Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-1-4299-0699-9.
  6. An Indomitable Revolutionary Fighter — Comrade Kim Hyong Gwon 1976, p. [14].
  7. An Indomitable Revolutionary Fighter — Comrade Kim Hyong Gwon 1976, p. [12].
  8. An Indomitable Revolutionary Fighter — Comrade Kim Hyong Gwon 1976, pp. [18–19].
  9. An Indomitable Revolutionary Fighter — Comrade Kim Hyong Gwon 1976, p. [5], [29].
  10. Cathcart, Adam (14 January 2012). "Historical Allegories and Revolutionary Credentials: Jang Song Taek". Sino-NK. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  11. "Kim Il Sung's Life to the Korean War". KoreanHistory.info. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  12. "Seodaemun Prison". Lonely Planet. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  13. Whyte, Leon (21 March 2014). "Anti-Americanism in South Korea: Why one of our closest allies has mixed feelings". smallcrowdedworld.com. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  14. Jae-Cheon Lim (September 2010). "Institutionalization of the cult of the Kims: its implications for North Korean political succession". ResearchGate. Retrieved 11 July 2015. North Korean media uses similar honorifics for him as they use with Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un and Kim Jong-suk.
  15. "NK Media Using Honorific Language on Heir Apparent". The Dong-a Ilbo. 5 November 2010. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  16. Yonhap News Agency, Seoul (27 December 2002). North Korea Handbook. M.E. Sharpe. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-7656-3523-5.
  17. Dormels, Rainer (2014). "Profiles of the cities of DPR Korea – Sinpho" (PDF). University of Vienna. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  18. 박희석 (August 2016). 북한 김일성 일가 우상화에 ‘동조’한 박승춘 보훈처. Monthly Chosun (in Korean). Retrieved 14 February 2021.

Sources

Further reading
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