User:Dckewon5131/박영철 (1879년)

Park Young-chul (February 2, 1879 – March 10, 1939) was a soldier of the Korean Empire who served as a government official during the Japanese occupation and was active in various pro-Japanese organizations. He is also the husband of a famous spy Bae Jeong-ja.

Life
He was born in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province. After learning Japanese in the late 1890s, he studied in Japan and entered the Japanese Military Academy in 1902 as a state-funded student. In 1903, he graduated with the 15th term of Japanese Army, and soon after the Russo-Japanese War broke out, he served in the army.

Japan deployed Koreans who were trained as Japanese military officers to the military before signing the annexation treaty, including Park Young-chul, who served in the Korean Empire Army Military Academy, and was appointed to the military service after the army was disbanded. When the Korean Empire troops were disbanded, many soldiers protested and often served as righteous army, and he and his Japanese military colleagues Lee Gap and Ryu Dong-ryeol jumped into the independence movement. However, Park Young-chul complied with the dissolution of the military and remained a pro-Japanese soldier when he was awarded the Korean Merger Medal in 1912.

Meanwhile, Park Young-chul lived with Bae Jeong-ja around this time and became Bae Jeong-ja's third husband after Jeon Jae-sik and Hyun Young-woon.

After that, he moved to the government office and became a participating officer in Hamgyeongbuk-do in 1918, served as a participating officer in Jeollabuk-do in 1920, governor of Gangwon-do in 1924, and governor of Hamgyeong-buk-do in 1926. In the meantime, when the March 1st Movement took place in 1919, he wrote an article criticizing the Manse Movement and published it through the Maeil Sinbo.

After resigning from his office in 1929, he moved to the auditor of Dongyang Choksik Co., Ltd., and later served as an executive at various banks and companies. He also served as vice chairman of the Dongminhoe, a pro-Japanese organization formed by businessmen in 1929. In the 1930s, he was appointed to the council of the Central Committee of the Japanese Government-General of Korea. It is included as one of the 353 Korean contributors in the "Joseon Meritorious Self-Confession" compiled by the Governor-General in 1935.

Even after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, he actively participated in a fundraising campaign for the donation of airplanes, and was active as an executive of various government organizations. After his death in recognition of his achievements for his consistent activities, he was honored with the Japanese Order of Lieutenant General Wookil.

After death
The list of 708 pro-Japanese groups announced in 2002 and the list of prospective pro-Japanese biographical dictionaries compiled by the National Research Institute for Human Rights in 2008.

In the two lists, Park Young-chul is included in various fields, including the central government, bureaucracy, provincial governor, provincial participation hall, pro-Japanese organizations, and the military. It was also included in the list of 705 pro-Japanese anti-ethnic acts announced by the Committee on the Truth and Reconciliation of Anti-ethnic Acts in 2009.

See more

 * Imperial Japanese Army Academy
 * Oriental Development Company
 * Chosun Government-General's Central Office
 * Guilhwe
 * Bae Jeong-ja