홍진 洪震

Independence activist who served as Prime Minister (Gungmuryeong) of the Provisional Government and Speaker of its Assembly; birth name Hong Myeon-hui, pen name Manho

Life & career

Hong Jin (洪震, 1877-1946) was an official of the Korean Empire and, in the colonial period, an independence activist of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea; his clan was Pungsan. His birth name was Hong Myeon-hui (洪冕憙), his childhood names Bonggeun and Ubong, and his pen name Manho (晩湖). The clan association and Namuwiki-type sources introduce him as belonging to the Jigye-gong branch of the Modang-gong line. After the Law Academy he served as judge of the Pyeongniwon and as prosecutor at the Chungju court, resigning in 1908 after refusing to present the case in a righteous-army trial. After the annexation, as a lawyer, he carried on courtroom battles in Pyongyang and elsewhere defending patriots.

In the March First Movement of 1919 he took charge of liaison and, after taking part in forming the Hanseong Government, in April of that year went into exile in Shanghai with Yi Gyu-gap carrying the cabinet list and documents. He served as a member of the Provisional Assembly and chairman of its legislative committee, and was elected third Speaker in May 1921. In July 1926 he was elected Gungmuryeong (prime minister) and formed a government, but resigned in December that year to concentrate on the single-party movement. He then took part in founding the Korean Independence Party (1930), the New Korean Independence Party and the National Revolutionary Party, and was again Speaker in 1939 and 1942. He is said to be the only person to have been both speaker of the legislature and head of the executive in the Provisional Government.

He founded the New Korean Democratic Party in 1945 and died in September 1946. He was posthumously awarded the Independence Medal of the Order of Merit for National Foundation in 1962; his grave, first in Incheon, was moved to the Seoul Dongjak-dong national cemetery in December 1984 and in 1994 to the Provisional Government leaders' section (the grave of a head of the Provisional Government). Within the Pungsan Hong he counts as the representative independence activist of the Jigye-gong branch, unlike Chuman-gong figures such as Hong Myeong-hui and Hong Beom-sik. Sources differ on his birthplace, some saying Seoul and others Yeongdong in North Chungcheong. The clan association describes him as one who devoted his life to independence as Gungmuryeong and Assembly speaker of the Provisional Government in Chongqing.

Exile in Shanghai and the Speakership

In 1919 he went to Shanghai with Hanseong Government documents and was elected Speaker in 1921.

Gungmuryeong

Elected Gungmuryeong in July 1926, he formed a government and resigned in December for the single-party movement.

Honors and Burial

He received the Independence Medal in 1962 and in 1994 his grave was moved to the Provisional Government section of the national cemetery.

Grave

He rests in the Provisional Government leaders' section of the Seoul National Cemetery (Dongjak-dong).

Other 풍산 홍씨 figures