Kim Hyunjik: biography and revolutionary activities

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:55

Kim Hyun-chjik (1894-1926) was the father of the "eternal president" Kim Il Sung, grandfather of Chen Il and great-grandfather of the current leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Kim Jong-un. Raised in a poor family of Korean patriots, he became the leader and inspirer of the national liberation movement.

Biography

Kim Hyun-jik is an outstanding leader of the Korean anti-Japanese national liberation movement. He was the eldest son of Kim Po Hyun and Ri Po Ik, ardent patriots. Born in Mangyongdae, Namri, Kofiong, Taedong County, South Pyongan Province (present-day Mangyongdong-dong, Mangyongdae County, Pyongyang).

He grew up with a patriotic upbringing from his parents and was under their revolutionary influence.

School Activist

While studying at Sungsil High School in Pyongyang, Kim Hyunjik organized a student strike.

After graduating from Sungsil School, he took an active part in the national liberation movement against the Japanese invaders. In the same year he was arrested and imprisoned for three years. After his release hesecretly went to Manchuria to continue participating in the anti-Japanese movement.

Active activity

In the summer of 1912, Kim Henjik left home for North Pyongan Province to lead the youth and students. He visited Osan School in Jeonju, Shinsong and Posin School in Seongchon.

He also went to areas in the northern and southern provinces of Pyongan and Hwanghae, not to mention Pyongyang, gathering like-minded people and conducting an active anti-Japanese information campaign among the general population.

After leaving high school in the middle of the course, he began a career as a revolutionary. As a teacher at the Sunhwa School in Mangyongdae, he carried out patriotic educational activities based on the idea of the Highest Goal. He devoted himself to rallying like-minded people and enlightening the masses in several parts of Korea, and went as far as Jiandao and Shanghai in China to make contact with the independence fighters and get to know the situation of the independence movement there.

Working at school

In mid-March 1916, Kim Hyunjik moved the center of his revolutionary activity to Naedong, Tongsam, Kangdong Prefecture, South Pyongan Province (now Ponkhwari). In the process of implementing his ambitious plans for the deployment of the anti-Japanese national liberation movement, he taught at the Menshin School there, educating the younger generation and preparing to create an underground revolutionary organization.

On March 23, 1916, the grand opening ceremony of the Mengsin School took place. On it, Kim Hyun-jik gave a speech,in which he spoke about the need to join efforts for the sake of returning the country. It is for this purpose that children should be sent to school so that they receive an education through which they learn their native language, become members of society and nurture love for their country.

He became a teacher because he believed that educating the younger generation is one of the most important ways to realize the idea of Jiwon.

Being an outstanding educator, he firmly believed that the struggle for the reconstruction of the country, as well as its ups and downs, depended on the education of the younger generations.

National Liberation Movement

On March 23, 1917, Kim Hyunjik founded the Korean National Association in Pyongyang. Expanding his activities, he founded such legitimate grassroots organizations as the School and Rural Associations, thereby laying a solid foundation for the anti-Japanese struggle.

Arrested by the Japanese police in the fall of 1917, he was imprisoned along with 100 other members of the Korean National Association in Pyongyang Prison, where he sought ways to further develop the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle.

After being released from prison in the fall of 1918, he moved to Chungang in the northern border zone of Korea, and then to Linjiang, Badaogou in Changbai County, Fusong, China, where he worked vigorously to spark a new upsurge in the anti-Japanese national liberation movement.

As a result of his efforts, this movement turned from nationalist to proletarian, the armed struggle stillmore strengthened, and the unity of the organizations of the independence movement was achieved, which fought separately in different places.

He died on June 5, 1926 from the effects of torture by the Japanese imperialists and illness.

Jiwon concept

Jiwon ("jiwon") literally means "broaden one's horizons" and "aiming high". This concept is based on the idea:

• the need to confront aggression and enslavement, oppression and exploitation;
• love for your country and people; restoring the sovereignty and independence of the country, relying on its people and building up forces;
• struggle for generations to build a new harmonious society.

Jiwon is associated with a strong will and the belief that a country's independence/prosperity and liberation is a noble goal, and this can only be achieved when one makes every effort to go through hardships and trials.

Jiwon represents the desire to put the country and nation above all else; a revolutionary outlook on life, in which true happiness is found in the struggle for the country and the nation. It is an idea that defines life as worthy only when it is devoted to social justice and truth, and not to personal advancement or career goals. The revolutionary vision promoted by Kim Hyun-jik was to put the collective interests of society above the personal, without hesitation to sacrifice their own interests, luxury andhappy family life for the restoration of the country and the victory of the revolution.

Jiwon is an idea that is not limited to a certain period of time, but which has constantly guided the personality throughout its existence. It is a systematized concept that laid the ideological foundation for the ideas of Juche and Songun.

In Korean history, Kim Hyun-jik, who actively promoted his revolutionary ideas, still occupies an important place.