Chapter 4: The Second Wind
공중난은 갈매기야
사체보고 울지마라
몸은비록 죽었으나
형명정신 사라있다
Black crows in the sky,
Do not cry over my body, for
Broken though my body may be,
My fighting spirit lives on.
Korean independence army marching song
By the early 1930’s, the first-generation leaders of our independence fight were either dead or too old to be active. These were mostly professional military men who had served in the Yi Dynasty army at the start of the century. Yi Dong Whi, Ho Bom Do, Kim Jwa Jin, Kim Gyong Chun and others like them had faded away from active involvement by this time, and a new generation of military leaders emerged. Unlike the old generals who were trained in traditional military tactics, the new leaders relied on guerrilla warfare.
North Korea’s Jang Baek Mountain Range is an ideal place for guerrilla warfare. The mountains are covered with thick growths of ancient trees. There is a large crater lake that forms Chun-ji at the summit, and the rivers and forest in the region team with fish and game. The Yalu River flows from here to the Yellow Sea and the Tumen River flows east to the East Sea. Both rivers team with salmon, other tasty fish and giant fresh-water clams. The southern half of Paekdu Mountain is in Korea and the other half is in Manchuria. There are a number of small villages on the slope of the mountain, very remote and isolated from the rest of the world. Kim Il Sung's Army operated out of the bases here.
Some historians fault Kim Il Sung for claiming to be the key independence fighter. In north Korea, little is said about other patriots. Kim's point is that even though there were many independence fighters in China, he was the only one to have operated in or near Korea, all others having operated in relatively safe regions far from Korea. Pro-Japanese Koreans and Chinese populated Korea and Chinese territories close to the Korean border, and so, it was almost impossible to run anti-Japanese operations amongst the pro-Japanese traitors. In fact, so many Koreans spied for the Japanese, Stalin, Mao and Chiang Kai Sek were cool to Korean fighters, because the pro-Japanese normally pretended to be anti-Japanese in order to gain entry into rear areas. Kim Il Sung had to fight not only the Japanese, but also pro-Japanese Koreans and Chinese, and Kim Il Sung was the only one to have survived in the border region and returned home alive. It is true that Kim Gyong Chun, Hong Bom Do, Kim Jwa Jin and others did operate in Korea in the 1920s, but they were gone long before Liberation.
On January 30, 1935, the Northeast United Anti-Japanese Army split into Chinese and Korean factions after an incident in which several Koreans were falsely accused of being Minsaengdan, a pro-Japanese vigilante group, and killed or expelled from the army by the Chinese communists. Gen. Chun Chin, commander of the 2nd Army, managed to escape and went into hiding. His deputy Yi Sang Muk, went over to the Japanese side and disclosed all he knew about the United Army. Wang Detai, a Chinese, took over the 2nd Army and continued an anti-Korean witch-hunt, causing a mass defection of the Koreans to the Japanese side. Many Korean partisans were forced to either fight the Japanese or the Chinese and many chose to side with the Japanese, as the lesser of two evils.
A delegation of Korean partisans led by another senior commander, named Song Il, tried to smooth over the Korean-Chinese friction, but Song Il himself was falsely accused of being a Minsaendang and executed by the Chinese. From this time on, the Korean partisans operated as independent units more or less hostile to their former Chinese comrades. Years later, in 1994, Kim Il Sung told former U.S. President Jimmy Carter that this was the lowest point in his life in China.
On February 12, 1935, the Yilan branch of the Japanese police arrested Chu Chin. Chu Chin was born in 1878 and fled to Manchuria when Japan annexed Korea in 1910. He was with the Korean Righteous Army and later with the Korean Independence Army prior to forming his own army. His army was later designated as the 2nd Army of the Anti-Japanese United Army in May 1934. This firebrand’s arrest was a major victory for the Japanese. Many Koreans had flocked to the 2nd Army because of its charismatic Korean commander. At its peak, the army had more than 1,000 men organized into three divisions: the 4th under Choe Hyon, the 5th under a Chinese named Fang Zhensheng and the 6th under Kim Il Sung.
On May 12, 1935, Yi Hong Gwang, another Korean guerrilla leader, a woman, was killed. Her specialty was assassination of Korean traitors. Her death gave rise to expanded activities by Korean traitors. Later during the civil war in China, the Korean Volunteers Army was named the 'Yi Hong Gwang Unit' in her honor. On October 25, 1935, China’s Long March ended in north Shensi with 7,000 survivors out of 90,000 who started the march 368 days before. The average age of the soldiers was 19 and that of the officers was 24. A Korean general, Mu Chong, was one of the survivors.
In Manchuria and North Korea, undercover spymasters watched over the Korean cadres and the guerrillas. These people never revealed their true identity and only the guerrilla chiefs knew who they were. Cell members met weekly to receive orders and pass information to their leader. These meetings also involved political discussions and lessons, and reinforced the common ties and the morale of the members. They would critique their failures and successes. Members of a cell had contact with their cell only; and they did not know about other cells. In this way, if a cell got busted, other cells would remain safe.
One spymaster was Park Tal, a relative of my Uncle Park. His organization was known as the Kapsan Operation Committee, "Kapsan Kongjak Wiwonhoe". Park Tal was also a close friend of my father and was a founding member of the Korean Fatherland Restoration Association, "Hanin Choguk Whang Bok Hoe", that was a front for anti-Japanese guerrillas in Korea and Manchuria. Park Tal's Kapsan group participated in Kim Il Sung's raid on Pochonbo and other villages in Korea.
Park Tal worked closely with Chon Kwang, alias O Song Yun, who was in charge of the association. Chon Kwang and Kim Wong Bong tried to assassinate Gen. Tanaka Giichi in Shanghai on March 28, 1922. A few years later, Chon Kwang defected to the Japanese side, and Park Tal was captured and driven insane by Japanese police tortures, but he survived World War II. The battered old fighter was made a hero of the Korean Revolution in North Korea in 1949.
Figure kis-choe.jpg: Choe Hyon's guerrillas participated in the Hyesanjin raid.
Larger meetings were also held
for about 10 people, so that all attendees had the chance to participate in
discussions. The cadres assessed each attendee's political motivations closely.
Small groups attracted less attention and lessened the chance of discovery by
Japanese informers. Cadres encouraged frank discussions of the obstacles to
participation faced by the attendees, for example, why he could not join the
guerrillas or why he could not contribute more money. The cadres tried to work
things out. No body was forced to do anything against his will, although, the
group pressure was intense; "every body except you is going to donate 10
lb. of rice."
Russians were still players during this second phase of the Koreans unrelenting struggles. On February 22, 1936, Gen. Sapozhnikov helped Park In Chol's guerrillas operating in China, who were forced to flee to Siberia. The Soviets encountered many pro-Japanese Koreans in Siberia disguised as partisans and therefore they routinely subjected all Koreans coming from China to lengthy interrogations. Park was cleared and given supplies and sent back to Manchuria, never to be heard from again, presumably wiped out by the Japanese.
In retrospect, it is little wonder why Kim Il Sung described this period as his darkest to Jimmy Carter. On September 30, 1936, Ahn Pong Hak, commander of the 4th Division of the 2nd Army surrendered to the Japanese. He was executed a few days later. On October 4, 1936 (Seoul), Chosen Ilbo published a news article on Kim Il Sung's raid on a small village of Shiliudaogou, Manchuria. Kim and about 40 "red bandits" confiscated livestock and rice from a farmer called Park Hun Young. Japanese newspapers depicted Kim Il Sung as a bandit preying upon poor Korean farmers. The guerrillas mostly targeted remote villages not protected by the police.
The guerrillas would slip into a village during night and arrest or kill any Japanese police or traitor found. They cut all outside phone lines. Guards were posted to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the village. Other guerrilla units were placed at key access points to ambush any police coming to the village. Pro-Japanese and landlords were arrested, ridiculed and tried before the villagers. Landlords' belongings were distributed equally among the poor. These guerrillas accepted donations but never took anything from the peasants by force. They always showed time-honored Asian respects to the elders and women of the village.
Brushing aside the hoopla and propaganda of North Korea in later decades, history shows that on February 26, 1937, Kim Il Sung defeated the Japanese police in Jangbaik Province near Mount Baekdu. In classic guerrilla warfare, Kim baited the Japanese with a small force of 50 men. The Japanese fell for the bait and walked into a trap set by 350 partisans. Kim killed 13 officers and captured 17. Cao Guoan's Chinese partisan unit of 150 men joined Kim Il Sung in this and other battles in the area.
But things grew more grim for Koreans outside of their homeland. From Moscow, Stalin ordered some 120,000 Koreans in Siberia herded into concentration camps in Central Asia in a move that rivaled anything the Third Reich would do to the Jews. Stalin suspected that Koreans would join the Japanese in case of a Japanese invasion. All Koreans in the Comintern were arrested and executed as potential agents of the Japanese. Military age Koreans were conscripted into the Red Army. One of these was Nam Il, later to head the Communist truce talk delegation at Panmunjom. Gen. Nam Il became North Korea's Foreign Minister after the Korean War and died of cancer a few years later.
As the United States and other Western Powers began talks with North Korea in 2000 and Western media referred to North Koreans as “enigmatic”, it is vital to note that the regime and the people there have faced impossible odds and indescribable hardship and the legend and cult of Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il, stems from sheer strength of personality and character chiseled by adversity perhaps unmatched anywhere in world history.
On June 4, 1937, Kim Il Sun's partisans, aided by Park Tal's Kapsan Operation Committee, raided Pochonbo. Some 200 partisans occupied the town and destroyed Japanese installations. A few hours later, the Hyesan garrison sent a detachment of police to investigate. The waiting guerrillas ambushed the Japanese and seven Japanese police officers were killed. The guerrillas gathered up weapons, uniforms and other desperately needed booty and faded away into their mountain lairs. Park Tal delivered some 80 much-needed new recruits from Kapsan to Kim Il Sung. The Japanese archives refer to this raid as the Hyesanjin Incident.
Just two days later, Kim's partisans, aided by Choe Hyon's unit, raided a Japanese outpost near Mount Baekdu and scored another victory. Next day, some 200 Japanese Ken-Pei, military police, in yellow uniforms arrived in trucks at Kapsan and started a massive manhunt. Koreans suspected of aiding Kim Il Sung were arrested and tortured. Park Tal's Kapsan Operations Committee was uncovered and wiped out. Park eluded the police for a while but was arrested eventually. Captured partisans were subjected to inhuman tortures, and to begin to know the North Korean character, one must know the sufferings that have shaped it
In a 'water torture', captured freedom fighters were forced to breathe water, sometimes boiling hot and other times laced with red pepper powder, through the nose - eventually you drown. In a finger torture, sharp nails were driven into fingernails. A third torture, popular with the Gen Pei, was the “leather coat” torture. You were forced into a wet coat made of cowhide and as the hide dries, the coat shrinks, applying steady and excruciating pain to your body. In winter, captives were stripped naked, dipped in water and then placed outdoors to freeze. Not many people survived these tortures. You either confessed or died resisting.
Figure kis-kap.jpg: The Kapsan Operation Team under arrest after the Hyesan-jin incident. Park Chung Yul, 1st from right was a distant relative of mine. All men seated were beheaded but Park Nok Gum, far left standing, was spared. She was killed in action in 1940. Park Dal, the team leader and another relative of mine, was driven insane by the Japanese torture and Park Kum Chul, another leader, held high positions until purged in 1957.
The Japanese Gen Pei posted wanted pictures of Kim Il Sung and his “bandits” of about 20 Koreans all over the area. Kim Il Sung had a price tag of 20,000 yen on his head. People talked about Kim Il Sung and his feats in hushed voices. You never knew who might be eavesdropping. Japanese informants were everywhere. There were all sorts of rumors about Kim Il Sung. One man claimed that he saw Kim turning himself into a tiger and killing ten Japanese in one strike. Another man said that Kim Il Sung was actually a dragon living in the depths of Lake Chunji. Still others said that Kim Il Sung could clone himself into one hundred 'Kim Il Sung's and hit the Japanese at many locations at the same time – now you see him east, next moment, you see him west ('Dong-e-bun-juk, Suh-eh-bun-juk'.) Thus was born the legend of Kim Il Sung. The partisans themselves no doubt planted many of these rumors while our village fortunetellers made others up.
All the more remarkable for the man who would take on the world’s greatest military power in 1950 was that his fame did not translate into popular support. Kim Il Sung had a tough time feeding his people. His scouts and recruiters roamed the countryside for support, but most Koreans were afraid even to talk to them. If it is shameful, it may also be understandable that the overwhelming majority of the Koreans were comfortable living under the Japanese, totally indifferent to the cause of the independence fighters. The families of the guerrillas were left on their own and many were homeless and begged for foods going door to door. There was no money in the guerrilla business; no paychecks, no family allowance, no insurance, no pension, no security, and no guarantee of anything. If they were captured, that was too bad – they could not expect any help from anyone. Everyone denied ever knowing them - including their own people. This was for their own protection, in case they somehow managed to survive the torture and stuck to their story of innocence.
As Kim Il Sung waged guerrilla war in September 1937, China’s Lin Piao's 115th Division scored its first major victory over the Japanese at the Ping Sing Pass. A Japanese mechanized column was ambushed and destroyed leaving the first supply of field guns, radios, and vehicles for the Red Army. That December, Han Ho, commander of the 1st Division, the 1st Army, Kim San Ho and Park Sun Il, a division commander of the 5th Army were killed.
In China in January 1938, a new Chinese New Fourth Army was formed under Yeh Ting,, to fight the Japanese in occupied territories. The Red Army expanded rapidly northward to Manchuria behind the enemy lines. On April 26, 1938, Kim Il Sung attacked the Japanese garrison at Liudaogou, Manchuria. On August 6, 1938, Yi Hak Man, commander of the 7th Army, was killed. Kan Tong, Kim Hak Sil (female), Ma Tong Hui, Yi Kye San (female), Kim Se Hyong (deputy commander of the 1st Army) and many other partisans were also killed in battle on this day.
In 1938, Japan fought a border war with the Soviet Red Army. Major battles erupted at Changkufeng and Nomonhan. Japan's Kwantong Army suffered 50,000 casualties in both battles. The Japanese were no match for the modern tanks, planes and artillery of Stalin's Red Army. In May 1939, Kim Il Sung raided several villages near Kapsan. By now, Kim Il Sung was concerned with the ever-increasing defections in his ranks. His once trusted comrades, Kim Pong Jun, Yim U Song, Han In Hwa and Kim Chae Bum, surrendered and were now leading the Japanese police to Kim's camps.
That August, the Japanese police forced some of the relatives of Kim’s partisans to spy on the partisans. Partisan wives were paid or forced to travel to Kim’s partisan camps and to stay with their husbands either to gather intelligence or to talk them into surrendering. This approach turned out to be very effective. The women told their husbands how their kids were starving; how their old parents were dying of disease and lack of food. After all the sufferings they had gone through, the partisans had precious little to show for. “If you can't lick them, join them” sentiment was spreading fast among the disillusioned partisans.
Chi Sun Ok was typical of the widow spies. Her husband had left her and their young children to join Kim's unit several years before. The Japanese police took her children as hostages and sent her looking for her husband. She found him and joined his guerrilla band. She worked as a cook and seamstress for the partisans for one year and then returned to her family. She informed the Japanese of everything she had observed and heard inside her husband's camp.
The fires of Korean resistance flickered even more weakly on February 23, 1940, when Gen. Yang Jinggyu, commander-in-chief of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army was killed by a group of Korean traitors led by Kim Sok Won, alias Col. Kaneyama Shakugen for Japanese. Cheng Ping, Yang's once trusted lieutenant, led the Japanese to Yang's hideout. Yang was wounded and surrounded by his enemy - but he refused to surrender and fought to the bitter end. The Japanese showed their respect to this gallant warrior and gave him a samurai burial with Japanese honor guards. Today, there is a museum and a town named after Yang in Manchuria.
Kim Sok Won reported to Gen. Nozoe Shotoku, the commander of a special Japanese army unit for hunting down partisans in Manchuria. His unit was made of mostly Korean and Chinese traitors. Gen. Nozoe had 30 million yen to buy turncoats. This infamous Korean traitor led a special detachment composed of Korean traitors – “Special Kim Detachmen” of the Japanese Imperial Army. Kim Sok Won received the Order of Merit for bravery for killing his fellow Koreans. Emperor Hirohito awarded the medal himself.
In a bizarre twist history, in 1945, the US Army and soon to be South Korean President Rhee embraced Col. Kim. On June 2, 1948, Col. Kim proudly led 2,500 Korean vets of the Japanese Army through the streets of Seoul wearing Japanese uniforms and singing Japanese martial songs. In 1948, Rhee put Kim Sok Won in charge of the South Korean border units. In 1950, Rhee wanted to make Kim the commander of the South Korean Army, but the US officials overruled Rhee. The Americans had no taste for Kim's Japanese blind banzai tactics and his close association with Rhee.
Despite crippling setbacks, on March 25, 1940, Kim Il Sung scored his biggest victory of his career at Daimalugou. His force of 250 men virtually wiped out a Japanese Special Police unit commanded by Lt. Maeda Takeshi. Lt. Maeda and 70 of his men were killed. Kim took 17 prisoners and a large quantity of war materiel. On April 6, 1940, Gen. Nozoe's forces captured five wounded partisans, and one of them, Kim Hye Sun, claimed to be Kim Il Sung's common-law wife. Gen. Nozoe tried in vain to trap Kim Il Sung using Kim Hye Sun as a bait. The Japanese eventually killed her.
By July 1, 1940, Kim Il Sung's guerrilla army had 300 men. Tempered by treachery and grinding setbacks, he now had a hard-core of commanders loyal to him, including Choe Hyon, Choe Chun Guk, Kim Tong Gyu and Ahn Kil. Choe Hyon held many high positions in North Korea and died peacefully in bed in 1982. Choe Chun Guk was killed in action during the Korean War in 1950. Kim Tong Kyu held high positions until his purge in 1977. Ahn Kil died of cancer in 1947.
The grim toll of the struggle did not stop. On July 12, 1940, Kim Chae Bom and Kim Kwang Hak, both company commanders in the 2nd Army, were captured and executed by the Japanese police. On September 17, 1940, in Chung King, China, Kim Gu of the Korean Provisional Government formed a new army Kwangbok Army of about 300 men and officers. Chou En Lai and other Chinese dignitaries attended the initiation ceremony. On September 27, 1940, Park Tuk Bum, a close comrade of Kim Il Sung and chief-of-staff of the 3rd Army, was arrested and executed by the Japanese police. The noose was getting tighter and tighter around Kim Il Sung’s neck.
In October of 1940, tt was the seasonal 'kimchi-making time for Koreans. Before the cold winter came, every household made and stored in underground shelters enough kimchi to last through the long winter. Tons of cabbage, lettuce, garlic and red pepper were piled high on our front yard. My mother hired a young woman to help her. The poor woman was struggling to feed two young kids while her husband was away in Manchuria fighting the Japanese. The woman and her kids were in rags and filthy. We would not let them in our house.
I slapped her kids for fun and the poor kids started crying. Their young mother broke down and started crying as well. My mother heard the commotion and asker the woman why she was crying. The woman fingered me and my mother got angry with me and slapped me several times. This was the first time (and the last) my mother spanked me. She was really mad and started wailing with the woman. You see my mother was from a very poor family and she empathized with the young woman. Mother hugged the woman and her kids; they all cried together for a long time. This was a lesson of arrogance and conscience and I felt bad and hid in my room. I didn’t feel like eating supper and my mother did not beg me to eat either. She was very much disappointed in me.
Even to this day, nearly 60 years past, the memory of this poor woman brings tears to my eyes. I was a spoiled rotten kid. And my elitist, holier than thou attitude, stayed with me and I have had to struggle to curb it all my life.
Kapsan’s streets were lined with men, women and kids on the verge of starvation. They held rice bowls in their dirty hands, begging for food from the passers-by. Their faces were blank, numb expressionless. Their bellies were extended as if they were carrying twins. They sat motionless with their heads bowed, as if praying for a miracle. The miracle came in the form of Communism. After the liberation, one of the best selling novels in North Korea was a true story of a family left behind by a revolutionary. The young man was unable to provide for his family and decided to leave his family to join Kim Il Sung's partisans. His wife struggled to feed her young children and lived through the most heart-wrenching miseries known to mankind. Communism looked mighty good to those who were down and had no other hope.
After the Japanese conquest of Manchuria, a puppet government was set up and the Chinese people turned pro-Japanese. The Chinese police and army openly hunted down their former allies – the Korean nationalists. Manchuria was no longer a sanctuary. It became a death trap for Kim Il Sung and other guerrillas.
A major disaster struck Manchuria’s Korean partisans on January 30, 1941. Chon Kwang, alias O Song Yun, political commissar of the 1st Route Army and the ranking Korean partisan, surrendered to the Japanese and disclosed the secret hideouts of several guerrilla commanders. This eventually led to the end of the 1st Route Army and increased anti-Korean sentiment among the Chinese partisans. Chon Kwang was well known for his attempt to kill Gen. Tanaka and for the founding of the Fatherland Restoration Association, an underground guerrilla support network in Korea and Manchuria.
On March 8, 1941, the Japanese bandit eradication campaign of Gen. Nozoe finally succeeded. Kim Il Sung and other partisans were cut off from local supporters. No one would risk an arrest and torture by the Japanese police. Another Korean partisan, Park Tuk Bom, completed the destruction of the United Army. Japanese offers of money and pardon, and the Chinese hostility toward Koreans, induced many partisans to surrender and to work for the Japanese.
Most of the partisan leaders, including Kim Kwang Hak, Kim Chae Bom, and the senior Korean commander Chu Chin, were betrayed by their own people and killed off by the Japanese police. The Japanese displayed severed heads of dead partisans in order to intimidate the populace into submission.
By March 10, 1941, Kim Il Sung was about the only surviving partisan leader of the Anti-Japanese United Army still active in Manchuria. Kim and what remained of the Korean Revolutionary Army vacated their bases and fled to Siberia. Kim was no longer any threat to the Japanese police, but his legend lived on more colorful than ever. People were trying to turn him into a superhuman, with his image assuming the scope of a modern-day Hong Gil Dong, the legendary Korean folk hero.
The Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army had some 30,000 partisans at its peak in mid-1930. It was made of three route armies. Each route army was made of several armies; an army was made of 1 to 3 divisions each. A division had 200 to 600 men. Partisan armies used designations that hid their actual strength.
Kim Il Sung was commander of the 6th Division, 2nd Army, and 1st Route Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army. Chu Chin was commander of the 2nd Army when a Korean traitor killed him. Choe Hyon commanded the 4th Division of the same Army. The 7th Army of the 2nd Route Army was commanded by Yi Hak Man and Choe Yong Gun, later to become Defense Minister of North Korea. Kim Chaik was political commissar of the 3rd Army of the 3rd Route Army. Kim was killed in 1950 – when he was the commander in chief of the People's Army in South Korea. As the dark fays of 1941 unfolded, all but Yi Hak Nam escaped to Siberia and joined the Soviet Army’s 88th Guerrilla Unit.
On March 15, 1941, the Soviets detained Kim Il Sung and his band of guerrillas of about 25 men and subjected them to lengthy interrogations. They were forced into the Red Army. Later some of them were to fight the Germans in Stalingrad and beyond until the end of World War II. Kim Il Sung and his partisans were pressed into the 88th Special Independent Guerrilla Brigade of the Soviet Army. The main task of this unit was to gather military intelligence in Manchuria. The 88th was located in a wooded area of Vyachkra near Khabarovsk, Siberia.
Figure kis43a.jpg: From left to right, Ahn Gil, Kim Il Sung and Choe Hyon in Siberia. Ahn and Choe died of natural causes soon after Liberation.
In Manchuria, Gen. Nozoe declared the end of his war against the anti-Japanese guerrillas and disbanded his unit. Gen. Nozoe had eliminated some 15,000 Chinese and Korean guerrillas from 1932 to 1941.
kis-88.jpg: The Soviet 88th Special Forces officers: Kim Il Sing is 2nd from right, front row. Courtesy: North Korean government archives.
In Siberia, Kim Il Sung was commanding the 1st Battalion of about 200 Chinese, Koreans and Russians of the 88th Brigade of the Soviet Army. The Brigade had about 60 Korean partisans from Manchuria, including Yi Don Wha, Kang Gun, commander of the 4th Battalion, Kim Chaik, Choe Yong Gun, and Ahn Kil.
1) Kim Il Sung - The North Korean Leader - Dae Sook Suh, Columbia University Press, NY 1988: an authoritative treatise on Kim Il Sung's biography with extensive references to Japanese, Chinese and Russian archives.
2) Communism in Korea - The Movement - Robert A. Scalapino and Chong Sik Lee, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 1972; includes information on anti-Japanese movements during the first three decades of the 20th century.
3) http://mahan.wonkwang.ac.kr/jucheon/column4-7.htm Kim Il Sung - South Korean View (Wonkang University)
4) http://www.korea-np.co.jp/pk/001st_issue/97072012.htm Kim Il Sung - North Korean View (People's Korea)
5) http://preview.britannica.co.kr/spotlights/nkorea/person/b03g1869a.html Kim Il Sung, Korea Britannica
6) http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/kimilsun.htm Who was Kim Il Sung? By Lee Wha Rang
For brief bios of North Korean leaders, see:
1) http://preview.britannica.co.kr/spotlights/nkorea/person/middle01.html North Korea Who's Who, Korea Britannica
2) http://inmul.donga.com/inmul_search/north_korea/nk_inmul_list.php3 North Korean Leaders - Dong-ah Il bo