Korea at War by Michael J. Seth

Author:Michael J. Seth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Published: 2022-12-30T00:00:00+00:00

Pak Jeongae and Choe Seunghui

There was one member of the ruling elite that differed from the others: Pak Jeongae, the only high-ranking woman. In the macho, male-dominated North Korean leadership Pak was an extraordinary figure. She was the only woman to hold high positions who was not a member of the ruling Kim family. She was born in North Hamgyeong province, home to many Korean communists, and in 1907, the year that as much as any marked the start of armed resistance to the Japanese, and Korea’s more than century of war. As a young woman, she went to Moscow State University for her education. This was not unusual; many Koreans sought education abroad and some of them choose to go to Russia; but not many were women. She was recruited by the Soviets as an intelligence agent and in the early 1930s was sent to Korea by Moscow. She was caught and imprisoned by the Japanese, released, and returned to the Soviet Union.

After liberation, Pak was dispatched to Korea again, this time with her husband, a Korean communist. Her spouse was appointed by the Soviets to head the newly formed North Korean branch of the Korean Communist Party. He died several months later of stomach cancer. Although trusted and respected by Moscow, her gender eliminated her as a candidate for Party leadership which went to Kim Il Sung. She was a member of the Party Central Committee and became one of its three secretaries. An early and strong supporter of Kim Il Sung she held many important posts in the Democratic People’s Republic, including for a time the Minister of Agriculture.

She remained a favorite of Moscow, was given an international Stalin Prize in 1950, and in 1953 was chosen to head the North Korean delegation at Stalin’s funeral. In the mid and late 1950s, Kim Il Sung purged those in the Party with close links to Moscow but not Pak Jeongae. That is, not until 1966 when she was removed from all positions and disappeared. Unlike many of the victims of purges, Pak survived and after being banished to the countryside for two decades reemerged in 1986, and as an octogenarian held minor positions in the government. Her daughter Pak Sunhui became the chairperson of the Korean Democratic Women’s League. Just as her gender made her an exception among the leadership, the fact that she was not part of the Manchurian guerilla elite and associated with the Soviet Union but still survived, and her family is prominent in North Korea today is unusual.

In its efforts to prove that it was the legitimate representative of the Korean nation, the North Korean regime welcomed major intellectual and cultural figures that promoted both Korean culture and the DPRK as its sponsor. One of the regime’s cultural stars was the dancer Choe Seunghui. Born in a yangban family in Seoul at the start of the colonial period Choe graduated from Sookmyung High School at fifteen and became a student of Baku Isshi, a modern dance and ballet teacher, who brought her to Japan to study.

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