Jan. 1947 - The Korean communists had four factions:
The last category is made of semi-illiterate peasants and workers who don't comprehend the basic tenets of Communism; they have joined the Party on the belief that they will gain personally. Indeed, they are given civic and other "choice" jobs vacated by the Japanese and collaborators - their only qualification being party loyalty. This is probably the worst mistake made by Kim Il Sung. He should have curtailed his anti-Japanese campaign and retained all Japanese collaborators except those who had worked for the Japanese police or army.
Photo: People Committee leaders under arrest by the US Army
March 1947 - China: Chiang Kai Sek attacks Mao's capital city of Yenan. My brother is accepted by the Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang - only the best and the most progressive are allowed into this university. My father knows many of the communist leaders - including Kim Il Sung.
April 10, 1947 - The US military crushes the last People's Committees in Chejudo and Keojedo. Many Korean nationalists die in the fighting. Thus dies the Korean People's Republic at the hands of a foreign power and its "running dogs". The very same Korean traitors who had sold out our country to Japan are now working for a new master - the American military.
July 1947 - Seoul: Yo Hung Yong - the founding father of The Korean People's Republic - is assassinated by Syngman Rhee's order. Yo was one of the founding fathers of Korean Provisional Government in 1919 (in Shanghai, China). His family had a record of anti-Japan activities. One of his uncles was a Tonghak leader, a peasant uprising during 1892-94 against Queen Min's corrupt dynasty and for the expulsion of all Japanese from Korea.
Yo became editor of Chung Ang Ilbo, a daily newspaper in Seoul. Prior to the surrender, the Japanese attempted to hand him the rein of Korea and he formed the Korean People's Republic and the various people's committees that existed at the local level all over Korea. His dream of a unified national government for Korea died when the US military refused to recognize the Korean People's Republic or the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai. After the disbanding of the KPR, Yo continued his efforts to organize a coalition government that would represent all the various factions in the Korean political landscape. Yo represented the great majority of the Korean people in 1947. He was adamantly opposed to retention of the Koreans who worked for the Japanese police. For this reason, Rhee had Yo killed.
Photo: Korean Volunteers Army attached to Mao's 8th Route Army
Sept. 18, 1947 - Over 120,000 Koreans participate in China's civil war on the side of Mao Zedong as the Korean Volunteer Army and regular members of the Chinese Red Army.
Sept. 25, 1947 - Washington: The Americans are fighting a new kind of war - Cold War - with the Soviets and their satellites. The US National Security Council states: "In the event of hostilities in the Far East, our present forces in Korea would be a military liability and could not be maintained there without substantial reinforcement prior to the initiation of hostilities.
Moreover, any offensive operation the United States might wish to conduct on the Asia continent most probably would by-pass the Korean peninsula." Accordingly, the US military starts a phased withdrawal of the 40,000 US troops, to be completed by June 1950.
Nov. 14, 1947 - the UN General Assembly passes a resolution for Korean independence. It calls for all-Korea free elections to be supervised by a UN Temporary Commission on Korea. Kim Ilsung opposes this resolution on the ground that the elections would favor the more populous S Korea controlled by Rhee. The Soviets refuse to allow UN members to enter N Korea. The stage is set for the permanent division of Korea.
