Woman independence activist and wife of Eom Hang-seop who assisted Provisional Government leaders; organization chief of the Korean Patriotic Women's Association
| Life | 1908 ~ 1981 |
| Era | 일제강점기~현대 |
| Clan | 곡산 연씨 |
Yeon Mi-dang (延薇堂, 1908-1981) was a woman independence activist of the colonial period. Her given name was Yeon Chung-hyo (延忠孝); after moving to Changsha in 1936 she began using her childhood name Mi-dang and became known by it. She was born on 15 July 1908 in Longjing, northern Jiandao, the eldest daughter of Yeon Byeong-hwan and granddaughter of Yeon Chae-ik. After her father's arrest in 1919 for supporting the March 13 demonstrations the family moved to Shanghai, where she attended Inseong School and Zhenjiang Girls' Middle School; she settled in Shanghai after her father died in 1926.
On 20 March 1927 she married Eom Hang-seop, a French Concession official and independence activist. According to Namuwiki, Provisional Government leaders including Yi Dong-nyeong, Kim Gu, Ahn Changho and Yi Si-yeong attended. Their daughter Eom Gi-seon, born in 1928, also worked for the Provisional Government and received a national medal. In 1930 she helped found the Shanghai Korean Women's Youth League as a provisional committee member, in 1931 attended the Shanghai Federation of Korean Organizations, and distributed leaflets each National Humiliation Day.
At the time of Yun Bong-gil's Hongkou Park attack on 29 April 1932 she is said to have made the cloth for his lunchbox bomb, and afterwards fled to Jiaxing with Provisional Government leaders. She accompanied leaders during the government's moves and nursed Kim Gu when he was shot at the tripartite unification meeting in Changsha. From 1936 she served in the Provisional Government legislature, in 1938 joined the Korean Liberation Front Youth Corps, and in 1940 in Chongqing formed the Korean Revolutionary Women's Founding League and became organization chief of the Korean Patriotic Women's Association, also recruiting Korean conscripts in the Japanese army to join the Liberation Army and visiting prisoners of war.
She returned in July 1946 with the 7th Unit of the Liberation Army on a US Navy ship. After liberation she kept out of public life; her husband was abducted to the North during the Korean War, and she suffered misunderstanding, poverty and a long illness from stroke before dying on 1 January 1981. Namuwiki records the Order of Merit for National Foundation, Patriotic Medal in 1990, and in July 2018 she was named Independence Activist of the Month.
Sources describe her honors differently: Namuwiki gives the 1990 Patriotic Medal and Wikipedia the July 2018 Independence Activist of the Month selection. They do not contradict each other; for the exact record please check the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs archive. Her father was Yeon Byeong-hwan and her uncle Yeon Byeong-ho.
Burial place not confirmed.
Her daughter Eom Gi-seon also worked for the Provisional Government and received a national medal.