People's Republic of Korea | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1945–1946 | |||||||||||||
| Motto: 자주독립국가 Chaju tongnip kukka "Self-reliant and independent state" | |||||||||||||
| Anthem: 애국가 Aegukka "The Patriotic Song" | |||||||||||||
.svg) | |||||||||||||
| Capital and largest city | Seoul | ||||||||||||
| Common languages | Korean | ||||||||||||
| Government | Non-functioning government,Democratic republic under aprovisional government | ||||||||||||
| President | |||||||||||||
• 1945–1946 | Syngman Rhee[1][2] (nominal) | ||||||||||||
| Chairman of the National People's Representative Conference | |||||||||||||
• 1945 | Lyuh Woon-hyung (temporary) | ||||||||||||
| Historical era | Cold War | ||||||||||||
| 15 August 1945 | |||||||||||||
• Soviet forces stationed inPyongyang | 24 August 1945 | ||||||||||||
• PRK established | 6 September 1945 | ||||||||||||
• American forces stationed inSeoul | 9 September 1945 | ||||||||||||
• PRK dissolved in the South | 12 December 1945 | ||||||||||||
• Committees co-opted in the North | 8 February 1946 | ||||||||||||
| Currency | Korean won | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Today part of | North Korea South Korea | ||||||||||||
| People's Republic of Korea | |
| Hangul | 조선인민공화국 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 朝鮮人民共和國 |
| RR | Joseon inmin gonghwaguk |
| MR | Chosŏn inmin konghwaguk |
ThePeople's Republic of Korea (Korean: 조선인민공화국) was a short-livedprovisional government that was organized at the time of thesurrender of the Empire of Japan at the end ofWorld War II. It was proclaimed on 6 September 1945, as Korea was beingdivided into two occupation zones, with theSoviet Union occupying thenorth and theUnited States occupying thesouth. Based on a network ofpeople's committees, it presented a program ofdemocratization of society and the economy.
In the south, theUS military government declared the PRK to be illegitimate on 12 December 1945. In the north, under the auspice of theSoviet military government, theKorean Worker's Party led byKim il-sung took over thePeople's Committee by incorporating them into the political structure of the emergingDemocratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), and by exerting an ever-increasing direct influence on the agenda and structure of other smaller political parties (such as theKDP and theDIP).[3][4]
On 15 August 1945, theEmpire of Japan formally surrendered to theAllies and capitulated on 2 September. TheJapanese occupational authorities requested that a government be established to ensure the safety of their persons and property after the occupation ended. Whilst theSoviet Union continued to fight the Empire of Japan inChongjin,Endō Ryusaku [ko;ja], who served as the second-ranking member of theJapanese Government-General sought to secure the safe exit of the Japanese civilians at the request ofNobuyuki Abe.[5] He proposed toSong Jin-woo that he take over the security and administrative rights of Korea, but when this was rejected, he asked to meetLyuh Woon-hyung inSeoul. Under Lyuh's leadership, the newly formed Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence (CPKI) organized people's committees throughout the country to coordinate the transition to independence. On 28 August 1945 the CPKI announced that it would function as the temporary national government of Korea.[6] On 6 September, CPKI activists met inSeoul and established the PRK.[7]
Security and administrative rights were transferred to Lyuh, and the safety of the Japanese evacuating the Korean Peninsula was guaranteed. Accordingly, Lyuh suggested the following conditions:[5]
Accordingly, the Governor-General's Deputy Prime Minister accepted the terms. That night, Lyuh Woon-hyung launched the National Preparatory Committee, basing its structure on the Founding Alliance, an underground secret independence movement that he had formed a year before in August 1944. Subsequently, Lyuh released all the political prisoners inSeodaemun Prison. Two days after the founding of the National Preparatory Committee was established, a systematic organizational network was established, expanded and reorganized. Lyuh was elected chairman andAn Jae-hong as Vice-chairman, who made the following declaration:
Founding Alliance Code
- Each faction should unite with each other to establish a unified nation and restore the freedom and independence of the Korean people.
- Cooperate to form a united front against Japan and eradicate any reactionary forces that hinder the complete independence of Korea.
- In terms of construction, all efforts should be focused on the liberation of the democratic public.
Declaration of the National Preparatory Committee
Humanity longs for peace and history aims for development. With the end of theSecond World War, an alleged tragedy of human thought, a day of liberation came to Korea. For the past half century, Korea has been a colony ofimperial Japan, blocking the way to freedom in all respects from imperial exploitation and oppression. But we have been fighting for our liberation for the past 36 years. All movements and struggles to open the path to this free development have been stubbornly rejected byimperialism and the reactionary and anti-democratic forces that have colluded with it.
With the international resolution of the post-war problem, Korea moved away from the Japanese imperialist base. However, the liberation of the Korean people was only a new step in the ideological movement, so a great struggle for complete independence still remains, and a great task for the construction of a new nation lies in our hands. Then our current mission is to strive for complete independence and true democracy. Temporarily, theinternational forces will dominate us, but it will not hinder whether or not we will meet our democratic needs. All progressive struggles to eradicatefeudal remnants and open the way for free development have been unfolded nationwide, and several progressive democratic forces in Korea are eager to form a unified front. By these social demands, our National Preparatory Committee was formed.
Therefore, the Preparatory Committee focuses on the construction of a new nation to reorganize our people into a truly democratic regime, and at the same time a completely liberated unified front, from all walks of life, to gather all progressive democratic forces. This is why a popular struggle against all anti-democratic reactionary forces is required: in the past, they colluded with Japanese imperialism to commit grave sins, and in the future they are likely to interfere with the construction of a new democracy, just like inJoseon. Fight against these reactionary forces, that is, anti-democratic forces, to overcome them and to realize true democracy. In order to do so, a strong democratic regime should be established. This regime will be composed ofpeople's committees elected at the National People's Delegation Conference, and it is needless to say that the revolutionary warriors and organizations that have been committed to the Korean liberation movement abroad have to be greeted with respect. Thus, a completely new regime must emerge to represent the general consensus of the entire Korean people and to protect their interests. In the temporary transition period until the establishment of this new regime, the main committee maintains the security of Joseon independently and takes one step further In order to realize an independent state organization, the following code is set forth with the intention of fulfilling one provisional task of establishing a new regime.
Program
- We intend to build a completely independent country.
- We are committed to establishing a democratic regime that can fulfill the basic political, economic and social needs of the entire nation.
- We will maintain national order independently and secure public life in the temporary transition period.[8]
The PRK has great significance in that it is the first Korean political organization to implement local autonomy, in the form of thepeople's committees. By the end of August, more than 140 committees were established nationwide in response to the support of the people.[9] Later it was nominally nominateSyngman Rhee as PRK's leader,[10]Kim Ku andKim Kyu-sik were also invited to join the cabinet, but all of them refused.[11][12]
The organizational work of the National Preparatory Committee was also carried out in North Korea. The leader in the North Korean region wasCho Man-sik, a native of Pyongyang, who 'took a non-violent yet uncompromising route' during the Japanese colonial period. Under different regional conditions in the south and north of theKorean Peninsula, Lyuh Woon-hyung and Cho Man-sik simultaneously launched the founding project.[9]
The organization had different names and differences in composition, depending on whether it was led bycommunists ornationalists. It also provided a foundation for the construction of a new nation as a 'people's self-governing organization', created by both nationalists and socialists who had been engaged in the independence movement during the Japanese colonial period.[9]
Seo Joong-seok, a professor of history atSungkyunkwan University, said, 'If there was no organization like the people's committees after liberation, there would have been great confusion. This is because major independence movement groups, including theProvisional Government of the Republic of Korea, were far abroad. However, before the liberation, the founding alliance was organized mainly by domestic groups, who were able to voluntarily perform major tasks such as security and administration.'[13]
The program of the PRK was presented in its 14 September twenty-seven point program. The program included: "the confiscation without compensation of lands held by the Japanese and collaborators; free distribution of that land to the peasants; rent limits on the nonredistributed land; nationalization of such major industries as mining, transportation, banking, and communication; state supervision of small and mid-sized companies; ... guaranteed basic human rights and freedoms, including those of speech, press, assembly, and faith; universal suffrage to adults over the age of eighteen; equality for women; labor law reforms including aneight-hour day, a minimum wage, and prohibition of child labor; and "establishment of close relations with the United States, USSR, United Kingdom, and China, and positive opposition to any foreign influences interfering with the domestic affairs of the state."[14][15] The motto of the PRK was, accordingly, "Self-reliant and independent state" (Korean: 자주독립국가; Hanja: 自主獨立國家;RR: Jaju dongnip gukga;MR: Chaju tongnip kukka).
When Soviet troops entered Pyongyang on 24 August 1945, they found a local People's Committee established there, led by veteran Christian nationalistCho Man-sik.[16] While the Soviet authorities initially recognized and worked with the People's Committees, they made determined efforts to ensure that Koreans friendly to their political interests, especially Korean communists, were placed into positions of power.[17]: p.227–228 [18]
By some accounts, Cho Man-sik was the Soviet government's first choice to lead North Korea.[19]: p.12 [20]: p.23 However in December 1945, at theMoscow Conference, the Soviet Union agreed to a US proposal for atrusteeship over Korea for up to five years in the lead-up to independence. Most Koreans demanded independence immediately, which includedCho Man-sik, who opposed the proposal at a public meeting on 4 January 1946. Afterwards, he disappeared into house arrest.[21][17]: p.187–190 He was replaced by Kim Il Sung, who alongside most of the Koreans Communists had supported the trusteeship under pressure from the Soviet government. On 8 February 1946, the People's Committees were reorganized as Interim People's Committees dominated by Communists.[22] The new regime instituted popular policies of land redistribution, industry nationalization, labor law reform, and equality for women.[23]: p.107 Meanwhile, existing Communist groups were reconstituted as theWorkers' Party of Korea under Kim Il Sung's leadership.[23]: p.148
After the failure of negotiations for unification, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was proclaimed on 9 September 1948, with Kim Il Sung as premier.[24]
After the American arrival in September 1945, theUnited States Army Military Government in Korea controlled the peninsula south of the 38th parallel. The military governor Lieutenant-GeneralJohn R. Hodge refused to recognize the PRK and its People's Committees, which were outlawed on 12 December.[25] He later stated, "one of our missions was to break down this Communist government".[17]: p.202 On 19 July 1947,Lyuh Woon-hyung was assassinated by Han Ji-geun, a member of the far-rightWhite Shirts Society.[26][27][28]
Edgar Snow, an American journalist, returned to Korea after its liberation and stayed for two months to report on the situation:
The United States landed in Korea without any preparation. However, there was already a founding committee in Korea and soon after there was political preparation. If the Americans had saved the National Preparatory Committee, the construction of Korea would have been faster and more beneficial.[29]
Some local units of the People's Republic remained active in theJeolla region and especially onJeju Island, where their presence, together with marauding anti-communist youth gangs,[30] contributed to tensions that exploded in the events known asJeju uprising of 1948–1949.[17]: p.221
Early November saw the creation of theNational Council of Korean Labor Unions (NCKLU) and its endorsement of PRK and its program. December saw the creation of theNational League of Peasant Unions, theKorean Democratic Youth League, and theWomen's League, and their support of the PRK.[31]: p.75
| Portfolio | Officeholder |
|---|---|
| President | Syngman Rhee[32] |
| Vice President | Lyuh Woon-hyung |
| Prime Minister | Ho Hon |
| Minister of Home Affairs | Kim Ku |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | Kim Kyu-sik |
| Minister of Finance | Cho Man-sik |
| Minister of Military | Kim Won-bong |
| Minister of Economy | Ha Pilwon |
| Minister of Agriculture and Forestry | Bong Mi-seon |
| Minister of Health | Lee Man-Gyu |
| Minister of Transport | Hong Nam-pyo |
| Minister of Security | Choi Yong-Dal |
| Chief Justice | Kim Byung-ro |
| Minister of Education | Kim Seong-su |
| Minister of Propaganda | Kwan-Sul Lee |
| Minister of Communications | Sin Ik-hui |
| Minister of Labor | Lee Sang-Hyuk |
| General Secretary | Yi Kang-guk |
| Minister of Legal Affairs | Choi Ikhan |
| Minister of Planning | Jeong Baek |
(問) 인민공화국의 주석취임 간청에 호의를 보였다는데? / (答) 들으니까 주석으로 추천되었다고도 하니 전연 알지 못하는 일이며 취임하겠다고 호의를 표한 일도 없다.
그런데 내가 고국에 돌아와 보니 인민공화국이 조직되어 있고 나를 주석으로 선정하였다 하니 나를 이만치 생각해준 것은 감사하나 나는 그것을 정식으로나 비공식으로나 수락치 않았다
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