Choe Yong-gon (official)

Choe Yong-gon (21 June 1900 – 19 September 1976) was the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army from 1948 to 1950, North Korean defence minister from 1948 to 1957, and the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from 1957 to 1972.

Early life and education
Choe was born in Taechon County (태천군, 泰川郡) in North Pyongan, Korea, in 1900. He was educated at two military academies.

Career


Choe's first military deployment was to fight the Chinese Northern Expedition of 1927. He also took part in the Canton Communist riots in December later that year. He moved to Manchuria to form a guerrilla organization and military academy school to trained the anti-Japanese guerrilla army. Choe joined the Chinese Communist Party and the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army in 1936.

He led a guerrilla unit against the Japanese after they occupied Manchuria (Manchukuo) in September 1931. In 1940, Choe and his troops had fled to the Soviet-Manchurian border in the Soviet Union and participated with the 88th Independent Brigade of the Soviet Army.

In 1945, he returned to Korea after Japan was defeated in World War II.

In 1946, he became the chairman of the Korean Democratic Party (KDP) and led this organization to a pro-communist course. He was, however, concurrently secretly a member of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea and tasked with keeping the KDP from becoming an independent political force. Afterwards, he came into more promotions and by February 1948, he was appointed the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army. When the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established in Pyongyang on September 9, 1948, he was appointed the Minister of National Security. He was in fact the senior field commander for all the North Korean armies during the Korean War, from the first invasion of South Korea in June 1950 till the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in July 1953.

In 1953, Choe was promoted to Vice Marshal and was made the Minister of Defence. In September 1957, he was removed from his position as Minister of Defense and made the President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, a largely ceremonial position. In this post, he was North Korea's nominal head of state. He was appointed as Vice President by the Supreme People's Assembly in 1972 and he left the office in 1974. He died in Pyongyang in 1976. Following his death he was given a state funeral.

Personal life


In his memoirs, Hwang Jang-yop, a former chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly who defected to South Korea said Choe was famous for being very hard to have close relations with, but in reality he was not that strict.

In 1970 there were reports of his deteriorating health, and after attending in November 1970 the KWP Congress and retaining his Vice-Marshal position, he departed for treatment in the German Democratic Republic.