Kim Hyong-jik – Wikipedia

Father of Kim Il-sung

Kim Hyong-jik (Korean: 김형직; 10 July 1894 – 5 June 1926) was a Korean independence activist during Japanese rule. He was the father of the North Korean founder Kim Il-sung, the paternal grandfather of Kim Jong-il, and a great-grandfather of the current leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un.

Biography[edit]

Little is known about Kim. Born on 10 July 1894,^{[2][unreliable source?]} in the small village of Mangyongdae, situated atop a peak called Mangyungbong (만경봉(萬景峰),”All-Seeing Peak”) just 12 kilometers downstream on the Taedong River from Pyongyang, Kim was the son of Kim Bo-hyon (金輔鉉, 1871–1955).^[3][4] Kim attended Sungshil School(평양숭실학교), which was run by American missionaries, and became a teacher at the Sunhwa school(순화학교) in Mangyongdae in 1913 and the Christian Myongsin school(명신학교) in Ponghwa-ri,Kangdong County in 1916 and later worked as a herbal pharmacist. He died as a result of numerous medical problems, including third-degree frostbite.

Kim and his wife attended Christian churches,^[5] and Kim even served as a part-time Protestant missionary.^[6] It was reported that his son, Kim Il-sung, attended church services during his teenage years before becoming an atheist later in life.^[5]

Kim Il-sung often spoke of his father’s idea of chiwŏn (righteous aspirations).

Kim Jong-il’s official government biography states that his grandfather was “the leader of the anti-Japanese national liberation movement and was a pioneer in shifting the direction from the nationalist movement to the communist movement in Korea”.^[7] Kim Hyong-jik is claimed by North Korea to have convened an important meeting of independence activists in November, 1921 memorialized at the Sansong Revolutionary Site.

• Father: Kim Bo-hyon (김보현; 3 October 1871 – 2 September 1955)
  • Paternal grandfather: Kim Ung-u (김응우; 17 June 1848 – 4 October 1878)
  • Paternal grandmother: Lady Lee (이씨)
• Mother: Lee Bo-ik (이보익; 31 May 1876 – 18 October 1959)
• Two brothers
  • Kim Hyong-rok (김형록)
  • Kim Hyong-gwon (김형권; 4 November 1905 – 12 January 1936)
• Three sisters
  • Kim Gu-il (김구일녀)
  • Kim Hyong-sil (김형실)
  • Kim Hyong-bok (김형복)
• Wife: Kang Pan-sok
  • First son: Kim Il-sung (김일성; 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994)
  • Second son: Kim Chol-ju (김철주; 12 June 1916 – 14 June 1935)
  • Third son: Kim Yong-ju (김영주; 1920–2021)

Notes: ^ To keep the tree of manageable size, it omits five out of the eight known children of Kim Il-sung. Other children not shown in the tree include: Kim Man-il, Kim Kyong-jin, Kim Yong-il, Kim Hyŏn-nam, and Kim Yŏng-il ^ Korean names often have a variety of transliterations into English, which can be confusing. For example, “Kim Jong-chul” may also be written “Gim Jeong-cheol” or “Kim Jŏng-ch’ŏl” among many other variations. See Korean romanization for more information. ^ Huss, Kan; Frost, Clay. “North Korea’s First Family: Mapping the personal and political drama of the Kim clan”. msnbc.com. Retrieved 20 January 2013. (Confirms many, but not all, of the birth and death years. See individual articles for more references.) ^ Yan, Holly (16 February 2017). “The world’s most mysterious family tree: Kim Jong Un’s secretive dynasty is full of drama, death”. Design by Alberto Mier. CNN. Retrieved 16 February 2017. ^ Official North Korean biographies of Kim Jong-il list his birth year as 1942. The Korean calendar is based upon the Chinese zodiac which is believed to characterize one’s personality. The year 1942 (Year of the Horse), in addition to being 30 years since Kim Il-Sung’s birth may be viewed as a better year than others, thus creating a motive to lie about a birth year. ^ Official North Korean biographies of Kim Jong-un list his birth year as 1982. The Korean calendar is based upon the Chinese zodiac which is believed to characterize one’s personality. The year 1982 (Year of the Dog), in addition to being 70 years since Kim Il-Sung’s birth, may be viewed as a better year than others, thus creating a motive to lie about a birth year. ^ Birth year for Kim Ju-ae is not publicly known. She may have been born in either late 2012 or early 2013.

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• April 15th Writing Staff, Central Committee of Korean Writers’ Union. Dawn of a New Age: A Novel. Vol. 1. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. OCLC 154676863.
• The Party History Institute of the C. C. Of the Workers’ Party of Korea (1973). Kim Hyong Jik: Indomitable Anti-Japanese Revolutionary Fighter. Pyongyang: Foreign Languages Publishing House. OCLC 252037406.
• Ponghwa Revolutionary Site. The Korean Preparatory Committee for the 13th WFTYS. 1988. KPEA 2JB070.