Choe Yong-gon (official)
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Choe Yong-gon | |
---|---|
최용건 Ch'oe Yonggŏn | |
Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly | |
4th term | |
In office 16 December 1967 – 28 December 1972 | |
Succeeded by | Hwang Jang-yop |
3rd term | |
In office 23 October 1962 – 16 December 1967 | |
2nd term | |
In office 20 September 1957 – 23 October 1962 | |
Preceded by | Kim Tu-bong |
Minister of Defence | |
1st Cabinet of North Korea | |
In office 2 September 1948 – 20 September 1957 | |
Preceded by | Post established |
Succeeded by | Kim Kwang-hyop |
Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army | |
In office 2 September 1948 – 4 July 1950 | |
Preceded by | Post established |
Succeeded by | Kim Il-sung |
Personal details | |
Born | Taechon County, North Pyongan, Korean Empire | 21 June 1900
Died | 19 September 1976 Pyongyang, North Korea | (aged 76)
Nationality | Korean |
Political party | Korean Democratic Party, Workers' Party of Korea |
Military service | |
Allegiance | North Korea |
Branch/service | Korean People's Army |
Years of service | 1948–1976 |
Rank | Ch'asu (Vice Marshal) |
Commands | Supreme Commander |
Battles/wars | Chinese Civil War Korean Independence Movement World War II Korean War |
Korean name | |
Chosŏn'gŭl | 최용건 |
Hancha | 崔庸健 |
Revised Romanization | Choe Yonggeon |
McCune–Reischauer | Ch'oe Yonggŏn |
Choe Yong-gon (Korean: 최용건; Hanja: 崔庸健; 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 of the Supreme People's Assembly of North 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 Communist Party of China and the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army in 1936.
He led a guerrilla unit against the Japanese after they occupied Manchuria 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, a former chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly who defected 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.
References[]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Choi Yong-gun. |
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Fyodor Tertitskiy (12 June 2014). "An Exception to the Rules of Kimism". DailyNK. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Chiefs of State and Cabinet members of foreign governments / National Foreign Assessment Center. 1973Jan-June. hdl:2027/osu.32435024020067.
- ^ Chiefs of State and Cabinet members of foreign governments / National Foreign Assessment Center. 1974July-Dec. hdl:2027/osu.32435024020059.
- ^ "Choe Yong-Kon". The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (3rd ed.). The Gale Group. 1970–1979.
- ^ Buzo, Adrian (8 September 2017). Politics and Leadership in North Korea: The Guerilla Dynasty. ISBN 9781317284970.
- ^ "Seeds of Juche Sown by Sino-Soviet Split", Hwang Jang Yop's memories
- ^ 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.
- 1900 births
- 1976 deaths
- North Korean atheists
- Korean communists
- People from Taechon County
- Korean Social Democratic Party politicians
- Heads of state of North Korea
- Vice presidents of North Korea
- North Korean generals
- North Korean military personnel of the Korean War
- Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly
- Kim Won-bong
- Defence ministers of North Korea
- Vice Chairmen 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
- Members of the 3rd Supreme People's Assembly
- Members of the 4th Supreme People's Assembly
- Members of the 5th Supreme People's Assembly