Choe Yong-gon

Choe Yong-gon (; 21 June 1900 – 19 September 1976) was a North Korean military officer and politician. He served as the Chief Commander of the Korean People's Army from 1948 to 1950, and as defence minister from 1948 to 1957. He also served as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea from 1957 to 1972.

Early life and education Choe was born in Taechon County, North Pyongan, Korean Empire in 1900. According to the CIA, he was raised in a landowning family. For his participation in the 1919 March First Movement, Choe was imprisoned by the Empire of Japan for three years until his release in 1922. Afterwards he emigrated to China where he studied at the Yunnan Military Academy and later the Whampoa Military Academy, graduating in 1924 and 1927 respectively.

Career Choe Yong-gon, Kim Chaek, Kim Il, and Kang Kon receiving the first domestically produced Type 49 submachine guns from President Kim Il Sung, 1949. Choe Yong-gon with the Chairman of the People's Republic of China Liu Shaoqi during his official visit to Beijing, 5 June 1963.

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 train 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 Chief Commander of the Korean People's Army.

When Kim Il Sung was appointed as premier 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. He died in Pyongyang in 1976. Following his death he was given a state funeral.

Personal life Choe Yong-gon and Kim Il Sung at Kim Chaek's funeral, 1 February 1951.

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.

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