Independence activist; the only woman member of the Provisional Assembly of the Korean Provisional Government (1939-1945); Order of Merit for National Foundation, Independence Medal
| Life | 1904 ~ 1979 |
| Era | 일제강점기·광복 이후 |
| Clan | 온양 방씨 |
Bang Sun-hui (方順熙, 1904-1979) was an independence activist who served from 1939 until liberation as the only woman member of the Provisional Assembly of the Korean Provisional Government. Of the Onyang Bang clan, her childhood name was Bang Sun-i. She came from Wonsan, South Hamgyong, and Wikipedia names her father as Bang Do-gyeong and her mother as Kim Bok-nyeo.
In 1911 her family moved to Vladivostok, where she finished elementary school and attended the Christian Samil Girls' School run by a Korean church. In 1918 she came to Seoul, entered Jeongsin Girls' School and graduated in 1923, then returned to Vladivostok to teach Korean children at Baeksan Elementary School in Sinhanchon. Back in Gyeongseong in 1925, she worked briefly as an interpreter at the Russian consulate and was a member of the Bukpunghoe, and in the late 1920s she went into exile in Shanghai.
In 1939 she was elected to the Provisional Assembly for South Hamgyong and served until liberation. That year she was chosen as a delegate to seek recognition of the Provisional Government from the Allies and conducted diplomacy with the Soviet embassy in Chongqing. In 1940 she founded the Korean Revolutionary Women's League as chair of its executive committee, attended the Korea Independence Party's first national congress in 1941 as the delegate for Tuqiao, and in 1942 became an officer of its Chongqing branch. In 1943 she revived the Korean Patriotic Women's Society as its vice-chair and, as a member of the Provisional Government's propaganda department, broadcast in Korean to Korean soldiers in the Japanese army through the anti-enemy propaganda committee.
After liberation she worked in various parts of China as a liaison officer of the Provisional Government, calming and assisting Korean communities, and returned home in April 1946 with members of the Korean Liberation Army's 2nd Detachment. She later worked in the women's department of the Korea Independence Party. The government awarded her the Order of Merit for National Foundation, Independence Medal, in 1963. Wikipedia notes that in the assembly she took part in debates on major issues such as the declaration of war on Japan and Germany, the founding of the Liberation Army and the adoption of the Founding Principles.