The March 1, 1946 Plot to Assassinate Kim Il Sung

The political scene of North Korean in the early months of 1946 was a mess: the issue of trusteeship - a virtual colonization of Korea under the Big Powers - divided the people into two bitter opposing camps. The noted nationalist leader Cho Man Sik led those who wanted independence now and the communists supported the tutelage under Stalin's order.

In February 1946, the Soviet Read Army arrested Cho Man Sik and locked him up in a hotel room and his supporters fled to South Korea in large numbers. Nationalists, landed gentry, youth activists and other non-Communist leaders left North Korea, leaving behind a solid block of pro-tutelage activists.

In an attempt to stem the southward flow of nationalists, the Soviet Red Army organized a Soviet-style mass celebration of the March First Movement on March 1, 1946 at the Pyongyang Rail Station Plaza. The was the second of Soviet-style mass gatherings in North Korea - the first being the welcome home mass meeting for Kim Il Sung on October 14, 1945. In spite of its appearance of peace and harmony, North Korea in the early years saw civil unrests. Thus, for example, in November 1945, students in Sinyiju mounted violent anti-Soviet marches, followed by student marches in Hamhung; supporters of jailed Cho Man Sik conducted clandestine anti-Soviet and anti-Communist activities.

Photo: Kim Il Sung, 4th from left, and friends enjoying a Autumn day at Moranbong in 1946. Kim's chief medical doctor, Lee Dong Wha is to his left in military uniform and his secretary, Moon Il is 2nd from right.

Of all of the 'counter-revolutionary' acts, the grenade incident at the March First celebration at the Pyongang Rail Station Plaza shocked the Soviet occupation forces the most. The grenade was thrown at the grand stand at the plaza, where the top brass of the Soviet occupation army and the top communist leaders sat. In the early morning of March 1, 1946 - barely seven months since the August 15, 1945 liberation - a large crowd of communists, government workers, students and citizens began to gather for the ceremony. This was the first celebration of the March First and the mass was mobilized by the officials.

The day was somewhat cooler than normal and the Song of Gen. Kim Il Sung was played loud from speakers mounted here and there. By 11 O'clock, the plaza was packed with standing room only with a crowd of 60,000 of more. Taking the center seats at the viewing stand were: Lt. Gen. Benkovsky (chief of staff of the 25th Army), Maj. Gen. Lebedev (the 25th army commissar), Maj. Gen. Romanenko (civil affairs) and other top generals of the Red Army. Flanking the Soviet officers were Korean leaders: Kim Chaik (Kim Il Sung's right-hand man, head of the Pyongyang Political and Military Cadre School), Choe Yong Kwon (commander, security bureau), Kim Du Bong (vice chairman, Provisional People's Committee), Oh Ki Yup, Park Jung Hae, Choe Yong Dal and others. Some 50 Soviet and Korean security forces surrounded the dignitaries.

At 11:05, a band began to play and two Russian limos arrived at the stand. Moon Il, Kim Il Sung's secretary, rushed to the first car and open the door for Kim Il Sung in a Western suit. A Soviet MP approached the 2nd car and opened the door for General Chischakov, the top commander of the Soviet army on Korea. A detachment of Soviet security troops surrounded the general and Kim Il Sung guide him to the seat of honor. Kim Il Sung sat next to Chischakov.

As soon as Kim Il Sung sat down, Kim Yong Bum, the master of ceremony, took the podium and introduced Kim Du Bong, whereupon Kim Du Bong took the podium and gave a brief 3-min speech. Kim Il Sung, the keynote speaker, was next. Kim Yong Bum introduced Kim Il Sung. Kim Il Sung took to the podium to the enthusiastic acclamation of the crowd. Kim calmly read from a prepared speech. Gu Ju Hyon, chief secretary of the Provisional People's Committee, followed Kim Il Sung and made of the state of union speech.

Photo: Soviet Army and Communist leaders on August 30, 1946 - on the occasion of founding the Korean Workers Party. Front row, right to left, Huh Ga I, Kim Il Sung, Maj. Gen. Lebedev, Kim Du Bong, Col. Ignatiev and Kim Chaik, rear row: Chu Yong Ha, Park Il Woo, Choe Chang Ik and two unidentified Soviet officers. Ignatiev was killed in an American bombing during the Korean War; Huh Gah I killed himself; Chu Yong Ha was implicated in a plot to topple Kim Il Sung and executed in 1953. Kim Chaik died of a heart attack in 1951.

And the march began. Kim Il Sung stood up and waved his hands to the marchers. All of a sudden, a young man of 18 or so threw a grenade at Kim Il Sung. The youth was standing right next to the stand. The grenade fell short of its intended target and landed on a stair step to the stand. Lt. Novichenko saw it coming, rushed to the step and picked up the grenade, which exploded in his right hand. The grenade blew up the Soviet officer's right arm and shattered his left arm dangling in blood and broken bones.

Pandemonium struck the stand and the dignitaries rushed off the stand and hid beneath the floor for protection from further attacks. The crowd panicked and tried to run away. The bomber was caught at the crime scene and Kim Il Sung and Gen. Chischakov were hustled away by Soviet troops. The master of ceremony managed to clam down the crowd and the marching resumed.

Meglel, a former Soviet political officer, who was in charge of the ceremony, recalls:

"Lt. Novichenko was assigned to guard the stair to the review stand. During Kim Il Sung's speech, a youth approached the stair and tried to sit down on a step. Novichenko told the youth to move on, but he started an argument saying that 'this is our 3.1 cerebration and you Soviets have no place here'. I went down to see what was going on and told the youth in Korean (I was fluent in Korean) - ' We have liberated you from the Japanese and we have every right to be here', and we pushed him away. Soon after, the youth threw a grenade at Novichenko, who was keeping an eye on him and saw him taking out the grenade from his pocket.

Fortunately, the grenade was defective and caused no major damage - except to the poor officer's arm. We arrested some 40 conspirators and began a massive anti-terrorist campaign."

The Assassins.

In Febrary1946, Cho Jung Suh, Sin Yik Hee's assistant, met with Kim Jong Yi (aka Kim Jae Chul) and two other plotters met and formulated the assassination plot. Kim Jong Yi had fought for independence in China. He believed that Kim Il Sung and other puppets of the Soviet Union stood in the way of Korean independence and the sooner they were eliminated, the better for the Korean people.

Kim Jong Yi volunteered to do the job himself and in fact, he brought two accomplices from Pyongyang - Kim Hyong Jip (18) and Choe Ki Sung (19). He proposed to kill Kim Il Sung and his maternal uncle, Rev. Kang Yang Wook first and then go after lesser figures like Kim Chaik and Choe Young Gun. Kim wrote down his plot in detail and submitted it to the nationalist leaders. Jo Jae Gook (20), who worked for a security organ in Pyongyang, was recruited in the plot and became the local contact man.

Kim Jong Yi and his two young associates were met by Sin Yik Hee, who gave Kim Hyong Jip, the designated shooter, a pocket watch and a hat. The three men met Yum Ung Taik, the Baikyi-sa commander, and received a pistol. They arrived safely in Pyongyang and Hong Min Gyu, a Christian elder sheltered them. Hong gave them 2,000 won (worth 10 sacks of rice at the time) to cover their expenses. A local sympathizer stole an old Japanese grenade from an armory. On the eve of March 1st, the plotters visited the plaza and made the final plan.

Kim Hyong Jip was to be positioned to the right and Choe Kim Sung to the left of the viewing stand, and Kim Jong Yi was to coordinate the attack. A local accomplice was to record the shooting on camera from a rooftop nearby. Kim Il Sung's anticipated opening statement - "Dear Compatriots" - was the signal for the simultaneous attack of a grenade and a Japanese Model 1 submachine gun.

On March 1, 1946, Kim Hyong Jip and Choe Ki Sung left Elder Hong's house at 10 AM and Cho Jai Gook left his house and arrived at the plaza at about 10:30 AM. Kim had the grenade and Choe had the submachine gun. The plan was to throw the grenade at Kim Il Sung and if it failed, Choe and Kim Jung Yi would fire their guns. However, the team leader, Kim Jung Yi, who was supposed to leave Elder Hong's house at 10:10 was nowhere to be seen at the plaza even after Kim Il Sung finished his speech - in fact, Kim Jong Yi never made it to the plaza.

That night, the conspirators met at Elder Hong's house. Kim Jong Yi claimed that he ran into a communist security officer who recognized him from their days together in China. They chatted briefly and parted, but Kim noticed that he was being shadowed. He tried to shake his shadow and missed the appointment. Choe Ki Sung said that Kim Hyong Jip could not wait for Kim Jung Yi any longer and threw the grenade at Kim Il Sung when the march began. Kim was arrested on the spot but Choe Ki Sung and Cho Jae Gook managed to escape. Kim Hyong Jip was tortured by Soviet and Korean security officers but refused to betray his teammates. It is believed that he was taken to Siberia and executed there.

Lt. Novichenko was the Soviet officer who saved Kim Il Sung's life on that day. Though gravely wounded and maimed, he survived the grenade explosion. Kim Il Sung gave his savior a pure gold cigarette case and ordered his men to take a good care of the Russian. Top Korean communist leaders took turns to be at the Russian's bedside. Novichenko was discharged and was eking out as a poor farmer in Siberia when in 1984, he was reunited with Kim Il Sung. The Russian was awarded the Worker's Hero medal and became a close personal friend of Kim Il Sung. He died in 1994.

Meanwhile, Kim Jong Yi regrouped his team consisting of Choe Ki Young, Lee Sung Chul (more on Lee later), Lee Whi Doo and Cho Jai Gook and planned his next move. They determined that Kim Il Sung was out of their reach and decided to go after his henchmen - Kim Chaik, Choe Yong Gwon and Kim's maternal uncle, Rev. Kang Yang Wook. They tried to kill Choe Yiung Kwon on the 5th and 7th of March and failed; they tried to kill Kim Chaik on the 9th and failed.

On 13th of the same month, they attacked Kang Yang Wook's (Kim Il Sung's maternal uncle) house and killed several members of his family but Kang was not touched. In this incident, Choe Ki Sung was killed and Lee Whi Doo was captured. Several days later, Cho Jae Gook, Kim Jong Yi and other conspirators, except Lee Sung Yul, were arrested. Lee was the sole survivor and made it back to Seoul near the end of March.

The above account is based on the confessions of the captured conspirators. Lee Sun Yul's account differs in several aspects. According to the confessions, while Kim Jung Yi was laying out the final plan, back in Seoul, Baikyi-sa leaders got concerned because they had not heard from their men in Pyongyang and Yum Ung Taik got impatient and dispatched Lee Sung Yol to Pyongyang. Lee arrived after the March First ceremony was over.

Lee claimed that he was sent by Yum to spy on Kim Jong Yi's team. Lee's mission was to make sure that Kim did not go over the other side and carried out the mission. Lee was ordered to eliminate Kim's team if it wavered. If things were in order, Lee was to join Kim's team.

In 1990, Lee Sung Yul was awarded the Moogoongwha Medal of Honor by South Korean government for his involvement the 1946 Plot to kill Kim Il Sung and other anti-communist activities.

The Baik-yi-sa.

The plot to assassinate Kim Il Sung, Choe Yong Kwon, Kim Chaik and other key communists began in earnest in February 1946. In 1945, Kim Gu, Kim Gyu Sik, Sin Ik Hee, Cho Wan Gu, Kim Sung Sook and other nationalists returned to Korea after years of exile in China. They were united in opposing the proposed tutelage of Korea by the United States and the Soviet Union and waged an all-out war against those supported tutelage. To them, supporting tutelage - a de facto colonization of Korea, was tantamount to treason and betrayal of the Korean people. The terrorism was their primary means and Baikyi-sa (白衣社 - 백의사) was their main terrorist organization.

Baikyi-sa was modeled after Chiang Kaisek's terrorist group, Namyi-sa. Baikyi in Korean means 'clad in white cloth' referring to the white clothes Koreans wear traditionally, and sa means an organization or a society. Some historians believe that 'white cloth' was modeled after the Ku Klux Klan, who wore white coats as their trademark, while others believe baik-yi refers to 'white angels' for justice.

Baikyi-sa was established in December 1945 in Seoul by Yum Ung Taik (應澤 - aka Yum Dong Jin - photo on the left in Chinese Nationalist Army uniform). Yum was born in Pyongyang 1902 and attended the Sun-rim School of Commerce in Seoul. He went to China and enrolled in the Nakyang branch of the Nanking Military Academy in 1934. Kim Gu talked Chiang Kaisek into allowing a special class for Korean cadets at the Nakyang branch and the first class of Koreans started in December 1933.

There were more applicants than the school could accept and Kim Gu, Lee Chung Chun (李靑天 - Kim Gu's army commander) and Kim Won Bong (金元鳳 - Yiyul-dang chief) personally interviewed and selected candidates. Yum Ung Taek was recommended by Sin Yik Hee and interviewed by Lee Chung Chun.

The Korean cadets were paid 11 won a month by Chiang Kai Sek's government. However, the cadets were being paid much less than their allowance and they rioted suspecting corruption of the school administration. Yum was expelled and escaped to Sin Yik Hee's house in Nanking to avoid arrest and punishment. Sin Yik Hee got Yum a job as a postal inspector in Nanking under an fake Chinese name - Yo Chun Taik. Shortly thereafter, Yum joined Chiang's Namyi-sah, a covert action unit under Chiang's direct control.

Namyi-sah sent Yum to Manchurian on a spy mission but he was caught the by Japanese military police. Yum was tortured and as a consequence of the torture, his eyesight began to deteriorate and eventually, he became totally blind in 1948. For this reason, he was called the Blind General by the Americans. Yum told his US CIC handlers that he was arrested by Mao's forces and that it was Kim Gu who fingered him to Mao's security. Yum was turned and became an informant for the Japanese police. He was sent to Pyongyang to spy on Korean nationalists in that region. Yum married Choe Sung Ryul (崔成律), a graduate of Nara Women's High School in Japan, from a prominent pro-Japanese collaborator. Yum frequented Young Myon Sah, a Buddhist temple in Pyongyang - a gathering place of Korean nationalists. Its master monk, Park Go Bong, was a former independence fighter and many Koreans came to him for guidance.

In August 1944, Yum organized an anti-communist group, Daedong-dang, of dissident students and youth in Pyongyang. After liberation, Daedong-dang became a terrorist organization. Its first victim was Hyon Jun Hyok, the chaiorman of SOuth Pyongahn Province Communist Party. Hyon was gunned down in Pyongyang in September 1945 by Baik Kwan Ok and other members of Daedong-dang. Yum was arrested by the Soviet security police but was released because of insufficient evidence linking him to the murder. Yum and his associates fled to Seoul in November 1945. It is recorded that Yum confronted Arakawa Takejo at the Seoul rail station; Arakawa was the Japanese military police who had tortured Yum.

Yum renamed Daedong-dang Baikyi-sa in the late 1945. Oh Dong Jin, a rich merchant, donated a former Japanese mansion in Gungjung-dong for Yum and Baikyi-sah. (This mansion later became the main safe-house for partying for the Korean CIA and Park Jung Hee was killed there by his CIA boss Kim Jae Gyu while being entertained by college coeds on October 26, 1979.) Belatedly, the Soviets learned the truth about Yum's involvement in Hyon's assassination and arrested his wife. Choe, who was tortured and lost her unborn baby while in prison. Upon her release, she escaped to Seoul and got reunited with her husband in March 1946.

Yum got reconnected with his old mentor, Sin Yik Hee and other right-wing extremists. Recently declassified US documents show that Yum provided intelligence to the US CIC agents in Seoul and had received financial and other supports from the Americans, Baikyi-sah trained and dispatched spied to North Korea and also, conducted political terrorism in South Korea. Yum's agents infiltrated military, police and civil organizations in South Korea and collected intelligence for the US CIC.

In the late 1945, Yum kidnapped Kim Doo Whan, the military chief of the Korean Communist Party and the son of Gen. Kim Jwa Jin, a famous Korean independence fighter. Yum told Kim that his father was killed by Communists - actually, he was killed by his own men working for the Japanese - and persuaded the younger Kim to turn against Communists. Kim Doo Whan became a notorious anti-red crusader thanks to Yum. It goes without saying that Kim Doo Whan took orders from Yum.

Sin Yik Hee persuaded Yum to become the military arm of the Provisional Political Special Action Committee, a loose association of the former members of the Korean Provisional Government in China. This organization was headed by Sin Yik Hee; Yum was its military chief. Cho Jung Suh was its chief of operations. It was Sin Yik Hee who had Yum working for the US CIC. Lee Soon Yong was a US CIC sergeant in Korea. Lee was a Korean American and served with the US military during World War II. (Lee, later, served as Minister of Interior for Rhee Syngman).

Gen. Hodge, the US military commander of Korea, sent Lee to Sin Yik Hee with the message that Sin's Action Committee would be disbanded unless Sin agreed to provide intelligence on North Korea. It was agreed that Yum's Baik-yi-sah would work for Gen. Hodge collecting intelligence on communists as well as non-communists in Korea. Yum's American contact was US Army Major Whittaker who headed the US CIC detachment in Seoul at the time. Major Whittaker acquired a training camp for Yum. The camp was a remote resort formerly owned by a Japanese capitalist.

By May 1946, Yum had ten agents trained at his CIC-provided training camp. They were sent to North Korea, two per province. They mission was to collect information on military installations, strength, weapons and so on. Major Whittaker gave Yum a list of specifics that the Americans wanted. Yum's fortune fell with the establishment of the Republic of Korea in 1948. The US CIC's role diminished and the Korean government established its own spy agency - HID. Some 100 of Yum's agents joined HID and Yum's training center was taken over by HID in 1948.

In February 1949, an emissary of Gen. Willoughby, Gen. MacArthur's intelligence chief, came to see Yum with an urgent request for intelligence on North Korea and future cooperation. Consequently, the Korean Liaison Office - KLO - was established on June 1, 1949. The few remaining members of Baikyi-sa became the founding members of KLO.

In June 1950, Yum was captured by the People's Army in Seoul and was killed in an American bomb raid while being transported to Pyongyang.

Maj. William Cilley Report on Kim Gu Assassination

Who was Yum Ung Taik?

Kim Gu's Assassin, Ahn Doo Whi, was an American Agent

Gen. MacArthur and Colonel Geh In Ju - An English abstract of ROKA Col. Geh In Ju's autobiography. Although Col. Geh played major roles - as Korea's intelligence (HID) chief, chief of counter-spy units, chief of police of various key regions, the Korean commander of KLO (Korean Liaisons Office - US intelligence service in Korea in the 40's and 50s) - few historians know about his contributions.