Communist Party of Korea

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See also: Workers' Party of Korea
Communist Party of Korea
조선공산당
Chosŏn Kongsandang

The Communist Party of Korea (

socialist parties under the Peace Preservation Law (see History of Korea), so the party had to operate in a clandestine manner. The leaders of the party were Kim Yong-bom and Pak Hon-yong
.

First attempt

After several failed attempts to establish a

Communist International (Comintern), which it received in May 1926.[4]

However, several communists ended up being imprisoned at a wedding celebration in November 1925.[5] Several communists attended the wedding, including Tokko Chon and Kim Kyong-so, and became involved in a brawl with Japanese police in which they made their political views clear.[5] On further investigation, the Japanese police managed to find several party documents and communist materials in the suspect's home.[5] Ultimately, the Japanese police arrested an estimated 100 individuals and convicted 83 for illegally establishing a communist organisation.[6] This effectively dissolved the Communist Party.[6] Korea scholars Robert A. Scalapino and Chong-Sik Lee note that "The period immediately after 1925 was one of unending frustration and failure for the Korean Communists. Within three years, there no less than four attempts to establish a Korean Communist Party. Each rapidly ended in failure."[7]

The party became the Korean section of the Communist International at the 6th congress of the international in August–September 1928. But after only a few months as the Korean Comintern section, the perpetual feuds between rival factions that had plagued the party from its foundation led the Comintern to disband the Communist Party of Korea in December of the same year.[1][8] However, the party continued to exist through various party cells. Some communists, like Kim Il Sung went into exile in China, where they joined the Chinese Communist Party. In the early 1930s, Korean and Chinese communists began guerrilla activity against the Japanese forces.

Post-war period (1945–46)

After liberation from the Japanese occupation in 1945, the situation for the Korean communists changed considerably. The country was divided into United States and Soviet occupation zones, and the working conditions for the party were very different in the two zones.

In the South, the party leader Pak Hon-yong, who had been a resistance fighter, and became active in

Central Committee
, of which he became the Secretary. Being based in Seoul, he had limited contact with the Soviet occupation forces in the north.

The Soviet

cadres in the north. The Soviets began to rely largely on exiled communists who returned to Korea at the end of World War II as well as ethnic Koreans who were part of the large Korean community in the USSR
and therefore Soviet citizens.

Kim Il Sung became a prominent figure of the party in the northern areas. After his years as a guerilla leader, Kim Il Sung had moved to the Soviet Union (where historians believe his son Kim Jong Il was born in 1941) and had become a captain in the Red Army. His battalion arrived in Pyongyang just as the Soviets were looking for a suitable person who could assume a leading role in North Korea.

On October 13, 1945, the

Comintern in the 1930s to conduct underground activity. Kim Il Sung was a member of the Bureau at its founding and replaced Kim Yong-bom as chairman in December 1945. Official North Korean historians later disputed this, claiming that Kim Il Sung had become its chairman from the onset of the Bureau. Moreover, official North Korean sources claim that the meeting was held on October 10. October 10 is regarded as the "Party Foundation Day" in North Korea, on which Kim Il Sung formed the first genuine Marxist–Leninist party in the country. Official North Korean historians seek to downplay the role of early communist leaders like Pak Hon-yong. Official North Korean sources claim that the name of the Bureau was changed to 'Organizational Committee of the Communist Party of North Korea' (often simply referred to as the 'Communist Party of North Korea').[9]

On July 22, 1946, the North Korea Bureau joined with the

North Korean Fatherland United Democratic Front
.

On July 29, 1946, the New People's Party and the North Korea Bureau held a joint

Central Committees of both parties and agreed to merge into a single entity. A founding conference of the Workers' Party of North Korea
was held on August 28–30.

In September 1946 the Communist Party of Korea led a nationwide general strike. At its peak more than 250,000 workers had joined the strike, which evolved into the first of October Daegu Uprising (Autumn Uprising).[10][11]

The remainder of the party, still functioning in the southern areas, worked under the name of Communist Party of South Korea. The party merged with the southern remainder of the New People's Party and a faction of the People's Party of Korea (the so-called forty-eighters), founding the Workers' Party of South Korea on November 23, 1946.

See also

Notes

  1. Cho Pong-am, Kim Chan, Yi Chin-hi, Kim Sang-ju, Chu Chong-gon, Song Tok-man, Cho Tong-ho, Tokko Chon(독고전 (獨孤佺)), Chin Pyong-gi, Chong Un-hae, Choe Won-taek, Yun Tok-byong and Hong Tok-yu.[2]

References

Specific

  1. ^
    S2CID 57570755
    – via Project MUSE.
  2. ^ a b c d Scalapino & Lee 1972, p. 58.
  3. ^ a b c Scalapino & Lee 1972, p. 59.
  4. ^ Scalapino & Lee 1972, pp. 59–60.
  5. ^ a b c Scalapino & Lee 1972, p. 60.
  6. ^ a b Scalapino & Lee 1972, p. 61.
  7. ^ Scalapino & Lee 1972, p. 66.
  8. JSTOR 2642612
    .
  9. ^ Lankov, Andrei (2004-11-04). "The Truth Behind the Meeting". The Korea Times. Archived from the original on 2006-01-09. Retrieved 2006-04-11.
  10. ISSN 0007-4810
    .
  11. ISSN 0952-1909
    .

Bibliography

Books
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