Communist leader of the Korean Communist Party and South Korean Workers' Party; first deputy premier of North Korea
| Life | 1900 ~ 1955 |
| Era | 일제강점기~북한 |
| Clan | 영해 박씨 |
Pak Heon-yeong (28 May 1900 - 5 December 1955) was a communist-affiliated independence activist under Japanese rule and a leader of the Korean Communist Party and South Korean Workers' Party after liberation. His seat is Yeonghae; Wikipedia describes him as a descendant of the Taesa-gong branch of the Yeonghae Park and a 56th-generation descendant of Bak Je-sang. He was born in Sinyang, Yesan, South Chungcheong, the illegitimate son of the fallen yangban Park Hyeon-ju and a concubine, Lady Yi.
Under Japanese rule he led the Korean Communist Party and the Korean Communist Youth League, was arrested and brutally tortured, and after feigning madness at his 1927 trial was released on medical bail and escaped to Moscow. From 1940 he worked disguised as a laborer in a brick and tile factory in Gwangju and continued labor activism. After liberation in 1945 he rebuilt the Korean Communist Party and was a central left-wing politician in bodies such as the Democratic National Front.
In 1948 he fled north to escape the US military government's suppression of the left and, after the government was founded that September, served as deputy premier and foreign minister, but after the Korean War he was purged by Kim Il-sung, charged with responsibility for the defeat and with spying for the United States. Assessments of him differ widely over his independence activity, his northern career and his purge. This site does not judge and repeats only Wikipedia's factual account.
He was born in 1900 in Sinyang, Yesan. Wikipedia writes that he was the illegitimate son of his father Park Hyeon-ju, a landowner and merchant of a fallen yangban house, and a widowed mother of the Jeonju Yi who ran a soup shop. His grandfather was Park Hong-won, and his father was the second of three sons.
A leader of the Korean Communist Party and Communist Youth League, he was tortured after his arrest, feigned madness in 1927 to win medical bail and escaped to Moscow. After 1940 he is said to have worked disguised as a laborer in Gwangju.
He rebuilt the Korean Communist Party in 1945, but his party dissolved as parties merged around the North Korean Branch Bureau. He went north in 1948, became deputy premier and foreign minister, and was purged after the Korean War.
His tomb after the purge is not confirmed in public sources.