Kaesong-born businessman and diplomat; first Korean minister to France and fourth Minister of Agriculture and Forestry
| Life | 1900 ~ 1972 |
| Era | 근현대 |
| Clan | 곡부 공씨 |
Gong Jin-hang (孔鎭恒, 1900-1972) was a businessman, diplomat and administrator born in Kaesong, Gyeonggi. His seat was Gokbu and he was the second son of the Kaesong entrepreneur Gong Seong-hak. After early classical study and modern schooling in Kaesong, he attended Boseong school in Seoul, transferred to Doshisha Middle School in Tokyo and graduated from Waseda in English literature. He then went to Europe, studying at the University of London and, in Paris, sociology.
Returning in 1932 via the Trans-Siberian Railway and Manchuria, he wound up the family business and prepared to move into Manchuria. In 1935 he built a farm of about 200,000 pyeong at Ogaja on the Liao River, and later founded Manmong Industrial Co. with about twenty local notables and 500,000 won in capital to reclaim farmland in northern Manchuria. The Encyclopedia says he saw Korean farmers there living as tenants and wanted to build farms creating owner-cultivators. Wikipedia also records him as managing director of Hanseong Tosa, director of the Sinhan Corporation and vice president of the Hanseong Ilbo.
After liberation, in June 1949 he went to Paris as the first Korean minister to France, presenting credentials in July, and returned in November 1950 as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry. He is said to have served as president of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation in 1957, president of Goryeo Ginseng Heungeop in 1961, and head (gyoryeong) of Cheondogyo. A commemorative volume, Isanghyang-eul chajaseo (In Search of Utopia), survives. He is regarded as having tried to grow his family's ginseng-farm business into a modern large-scale enterprise over three generations.
His life sits where the modernisation of a Kaesong merchant family met the diplomacy and agricultural policy of the new government after liberation. The path from owner-cultivator farms in Manchuria to Minister of Agriculture and head of the cooperative federation can be read as a steady interest in agriculture. How his colonial-era Manchurian ventures should be judged may differ among scholars, so only facts are given here.
Born the second son of a Kaesong ginseng-growing Gokbu Gong family, he studied at Boseong, Doshisha, Waseda, London and sociology in Paris.
In 1935 he built the Ogaja farm and founded Manmong Industrial, conceiving farms built on owner-cultivators.
He was first minister to France in 1949, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry from November 1950, and is said to have become president of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation in 1957.
He is a leading modern political and business figure of the Gokbu Gong, introduced alongside clan members Gong Deok-gwi and Gong Ro-myung.
The location of his tomb was not confirmed here.
His father was the Kaesong entrepreneur Gong Seong-hak.