조봉암 曺奉岩
Independence activist and politician; first Minister of Agriculture and Forestry; Progressive Party chairman (pen name Juksan)
| Life | 1898 ~ 1959 |
| Era | 근현대 |
| Clan | 창녕 조씨 |
Life & career
Jo Bong-am (曺奉岩, 1898–1959) was an independence activist and politician of the Changnyeong Cho clan, with the pen name Juksan (竹山). Korean Wikipedia gives his birth as 25 September 1898 in Seonwon-myeon, Ganghwa County, Gyeonggi Province, while some sources give 1899; some sources also write his name as 曺奉巖.
During the Japanese colonial period he took part in socialist-line independence activities, and after liberation he served in the Constituent National Assembly and as the first Minister of Agriculture and Forestry. As minister he led the drafting of the land reform plan; he ran for president in 1952 and 1956 and founded the Progressive Party in 1956. Indicted in the 1958 Progressive Party Incident, he was executed on 31 July 1959, and on 20 January 2011 the Supreme Court found him not guilty in a retrial.
From Ganghwa to Independence and Socialist Activism
Born in Ganghwa, he finished primary school in 1911 but could not continue for lack of money, working as a county office boy and a scrivener's assistant. In 1919 he entered the middle school division of the Seoul YMCA, where he met figures such as Yeo Un-hyeong. Korean Wikipedia says he took part in the March First Movement, served a year in prison and fled to Shanghai, but marks this passage as needing sourcing.
He entered Chuo University in Japan in 1921, studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow in 1923, and took part in forming the Korean Communist Party and the Korean Communist Youth League in 1925. In 1926 he became responsible secretary of the party's Manchuria bureau.
Arrest and Imprisonment
He was arrested in the French Concession in Shanghai in September 1932, sent back to Korea and served seven years in Sinuiju prison. He is recorded as having learned in prison of the death of his wife Kim Geum-ok and as having lost fingers as an after-effect of torture. He was released in July 1939.
Post-Liberation Politics and the Agriculture Ministry
After his release in August 1945 he worked in Incheon; in 1946 he sent an open letter criticizing Pak Hon-yong and declared his break with communism, and in June that year he was expelled from the Korean Communist Party. He won a seat in the May 1948 general election, became a member of the constitution drafting committee and on 24 July took office as the first Minister of Agriculture and Forestry.
Heading the land reform drafting committee, he sought confiscation and distribution without compensation, but opposition from landlord interests led to adoption of purchase and distribution with compensation. He left the ministry in February 1949 and later served as Vice Speaker of the National Assembly.
Presidential Races and the Progressive Party
He ran as an independent in the 1952 presidential election and lost. In 1956 he ran again as an independent and is recorded as winning about 2.16 million votes (against about 5.05 million for Syngman Rhee). In November of that year he founded the Progressive Party, whose platform was 'responsible reformist politics, planned economy without exploitation, and democratic peaceful unification'.
The Progressive Party Incident and Acquittal on Retrial
In January 1958 Progressive Party leaders were rounded up and Jo Bong-am was indicted on charges including espionage. The first trial acquitted him of espionage, but the appeals court sentenced him to death and the Supreme Court upheld it; the sentence was carried out on 31 July 1959. In 2007 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission judged the case to have been fabricated and recommended a retrial, and on 20 January 2011 the Supreme Court acquitted him of the charges of subverting the state and espionage (finding the arms-possession charge proven but suspending sentence).
Grave and Commemoration
His grave lies in Mangu History and Culture Park in Jungnang District, Seoul, and the gravestone carries no epitaph. A memorial monument was erected in July 2001 at Gapgot-ri, Ganghwa-eup. A notable figure of the same clan is Jo Man-sik.
Grave
His grave is located in Mangu History and Culture Park (Mt. Mangu) in Jungnang District, Seoul, near the Dongnakcheon spring along the Meditation Path.