Volta
Person1900 – 1956

Pak Hon-yong

Also called: Park Heon-yeong

Communist who rebuilt the Korean Communist Party after liberation and led the South Korean Workers' Party, became vice premier and foreign minister of North Korea in 1948 and was later purged

He took part in founding the Korean Communist Party in 1925 and was imprisoned several times under Japanese rule. After liberation he rebuilt and led the Korean Communist Party, which switched to supporting the Moscow decision on trusteeship. When the US military government cracked down on the communists after the Jeongpansa counterfeiting case of 1946, he went north and directed the South Korean Workers' Party. On the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1948 he became vice premier and foreign minister, but after the Korean War he was arrested in 1953, sentenced to death as an American spy and executed.

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3 related events

  1. 1
    1945 – 1946Anti-Trusteeship Movementrelated figure

    Kim Gu, Syngman Rhee and the right opposed trusteeship; the left at first opposed it too, then switched to supporting the Moscow decision.

  2. 2
    1948Establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Koreaparticipant

    North of the 38th parallel, the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established with Kim Il-sung as premier.

  3. 3
    1956August Faction Incidentrelated figure

    In North Korea, the Yan’an and Soviet factions who criticized Kim Il Sung’s personality cult were purged, cementing his one-man rule.

People who appear alongside

  • Kim Il Sung1912 – 1994

    Leader of North Korea (1948–1994): chairman of the Provisional People’s Committee, then premier and president. Purged rivals after the Korean War and built one-man rule

  • Kim Gu1876 – 1949

    Known as Baekbeom; founded the Korean Patriotic Organization and led the Liberation Army as Chairman of the Provisional Government

  • Syngman Rhee1875 – 1965

    First President of the Provisional Government, who worked through diplomacy in the US; later first President of the Republic of Korea