Hwang Jang-yop

Hwang Jang-yop (Korean: 황장엽; 17 February 1923 – 10 October 2010) was a North Korean politician who defected to South Korea in 1997, best known for being the highest-ranking North Korean defector[1] until deputy ambassador Thae Yong-ho defected in 2016.[2] Hwang was largely responsible for crafting Juche, the official state ideology of North Korea.

In this Korean name, the family name is Hwang.

Hwang Jang-yop
황장엽
Hwang in September 2009
Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
In office
28 December 1972 – 7 April 1983
LeaderKim Il-sung
Preceded byChoe Yong-gon
Succeeded byYang Hyong-sop
Personal details
Born
Hwang Jang-yop

17 February 1923
Kangdong County, South Pyongan Province, Japanese Korea
Died10 October 2010 (2010-10-11) (aged 87)
Seoul, South Korea
Cause of deathHeart attack
NationalitySouth Korean
Political partyWorkers' Party of Korea (1946–1997)
Hwang Jang-yop
Hangul
황장엽
Hanja
Revised RomanizationHwang Jang-yeop
McCune–ReischauerHwang Changyŏp

Early life and education

Hwang was born in Kangdong, South Pyongan Province. He graduated from the Pyongyang Commercial School in 1941, and then went to Tokyo in 1942 to attend Chuo University's law school; however, he quit two years later and returned to Pyongyang, where he taught mathematics at his old school. He joined the Workers' Party of Korea in 1946, soon after its founding; from 1949 to 1953, he was sent to study at Moscow University in the Soviet Union,[3] where he met his wife Pak Sung-ok. Upon his return to North Korea, he became head lecturer in philosophy at Kim Il-sung University. He would later ascend to the presidency of that university in April 1965.[3]

Career

Sometime in the late 1950s, Hwang discovered a 1955 speech, On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work, in which Kim Il-sung said, "Juche means Chosun's revolution" (Chosun being the traditional name for Korea). At the time, Kim wanted to develop his own version of Marxism-Leninism, and Hwang was largely responsible for developing what became known as "the Juche Idea." As part of this, he helped scrub all of the paeans to Joseph Stalin that had been typical of Kim's speeches in the 1940s and early 1950s. He also supervised the rewriting of Korean Communist history to make it look like Kim had been the founder and leader of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea from its inception.[4]

In 1972, Hwang became Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, a position which he would hold for 11 years.[5]

In 1983, however, he was removed from the Assembly and his standing deteriorated; though he had been Kim Jong-il's teacher at Kim Il-sung University, Kim now spoke to him only to criticize him, specifically admonishing him for taking too close an interest in China's capitalist reforms.[6] Remarking on his role as advisor to Kim Jong-il, Hwang stated: "When I proposed something, he would pretend to listen at first, but in the end, he would never listen."[7]

Defection

Hwang defected on the way back from a February 1997 trip to Tokyo by walking into the South Korean embassy in Beijing along with his aide Kim Duk-hong, the president of a North Korean trading firm in Beijing.[8][9] Pyongyang immediately threatened retaliation, while Beijing police sealed off the South Korean embassy.[10] Three days later, North Korean defector Yi Han-yong, the nephew of Kim Jong-il's mistress Song Hye-rim, was shot outside of his home in South Korea in Bundang, Gyeonggi-do, by unknown assailants widely suspected to be North Korean special forces agents; South Korean Prime Minister Lee Soo-sung described the attack as retaliation for Hwang's defection.[11] A few days later, Kim Jong-il was quoted on Radio Pyongyang as saying, "Cowards, leave if you want to. We will defend the red flag of revolution to the end", a message seen as marking acceptance of Hwang's defection.[12]

Chinese authorities eventually permitted Hwang to depart for South Korea via the Philippines several weeks later.[13] Considering Hwang's prominent role in the North Korean regime, his defection caused a stir, with The Washington Post saying it was "as if Joseph Goebbels had defected from Nazi Germany".[4]

After his defection, Hwang's wife back in North Korea died by suicide, and one of his daughters died under mysterious circumstances by falling off a truck; his other children, a daughter and a son, as well his grandchildren, are thought to have been sent to labour camps.[6] After his arrival in South Korea, he became a harsh critic of North Korea, publishing over 12 books and treatises, many of which accused Kim Jong-il of "betraying Juche and building feudalism instead of socialism", and used his position as chairman of the Unification Policy Research Institute to spread his message. However, under the Sunshine Policy of president Kim Dae-jung, who took office in 1998, Hwang found himself increasingly marginalised; in November 2000, he was removed from the chairmanship of the Unification Policy Research Institute, leading him to complain that the South Korean government wanted him to stay quiet so as not to upset the North.[13]

Hwang contributed to the Daily NK, an online newspaper set up by South Koreans with North Korean staff.[14] He described his feelings surrounding the defection in the paper.[15][16]

In April 2010, the South Korean National Intelligence Service announced that it had arrested two North Korean agents who had allegedly been sent to assassinate Hwang.[17] The two agents had reportedly trained for four years in preparation for their mission. They had posed as defectors, but were discovered during questioning by South Korean authorities. They claimed that they would receive assistance from North Korean sympathisers in the South, but refused to give any names when questioned. Hwang commented on the assassination attempt, "Death is just death. There is no difference from dying of old age or being killed by Kim Jong-il."[18] In June 2010, South Korea sentenced the two would-be assassins to 10 years in prison.[19]

Death

Hwang was found dead in his home in Seoul, South Korea, on the morning of 10 October 2010. Initial reports stated that he died of a heart attack.[1] He died while bathing, and as such a large amount of water entered his lungs; however, an autopsy found no poison or drugs in his body, and footage from surveillance cameras showed no signs of forcible entry. On those grounds, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) stated that there was no evidence that his death might be murder and that they would close their investigation. On 20 October, just shortly after Hwang's death, the SMPA announced that it had arrested another would-be assassin of Hwang, Ri Dong-sam, who had also entered South Korea posing as a North Korean defector; however, the charges had no connection to Hwang's death.[20]

Bibliography

Hwang published 20 books after his defection to South Korea:[21]

  • Hwang Jang Jop (1999). I Saw the Truth of the History. Hanul Books.
  • — (2001). Sunshine Siding with Darkness Cannot Beat Darkness. Monthly Chosun.
  • — (2002). World Democratization and the Last War of Human Beings. The Zeitgeist.
  • — (2002). National Life More Precious than Individual's Life. The Zeitgeist.
  • — (2003). Several Matters about the Human-centered Philosophy. The Zeitgeist.
  • — (2005). Democratic Political Philosophy. The Zeitgeist.
  • — (2006). The Truth and Deceit of North Korea. The Zeitgeist.
  • — (2006). Dialectical Strategy and Tactics Theory. The Zeitgeist.
  • — (2006). Hwang Jang Yop's Memoirs. The Zeitgeist.
  • — (2007). Philosophy for Youths. The Zeitgeist.
  • — (2008). Human-centered Philosophy Principles. The Zeitgeist.
  • — (2008). North Korean Democratization and Democratic Strategy. The Zeitgeist.
  • — (2009). Dialectics and Dialectic Strategy and Tactics. The Zeitgeist.
  • — (2009). Democracy and Communism. The Zeitgeist.
  • — (2010). Logic. The Zeitgeist.
  • — (2010). Human-centered Philosophy – Outlook on the World. The Zeitgeist.
  • — (2010). Human-centered Philosophy – Outlook on History. The Zeitgeist.
  • — (2010). Human-centered Philosophy – Outlook on Life. The Zeitgeist.

References
  1. "Hwang Jang-yop dies at 87", Korea Times, 10 October 2010, archived from the original on 11 October 2010, retrieved 10 October 2010
  2. "N Korean envoy in UK defects to South". BBC News. Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  3. Corfield, Justin (2014). "Hwang Jang Yop". Historical Dictionary of Pyongyang. London: Anthem Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-1-78308-341-1.
  4. Becker, Jasper (2005), Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea, New York City: Oxford University Press, pp. 65–66, ISBN 0-19-517044-X
  5. "Hwang Jang-yop Holds Press Conference To Explain Why He Defected from North Korea", North Korea Special Weapons Nuclear, Biological, Chemical and Missile Proliferation News, Federation of American Scientists (152), 21 July 1997, archived from the original on 30 September 2007, retrieved 30 October 2007
  6. Kaplan, Fred (30 October 2003), "The Pyongyang Candidate: The Ahmad Chalabi of North Korea comes to Washington", Slate, archived from the original on 1 October 2007, retrieved 30 October 2007
  7. National Geographic: Inside North Korea on YouTube
  8. Demick, Barbara (2010). Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea (UK ed.). Granta Publications. p. 66. ISBN 978-1-84708-141-4.
  9. Scanlon, Charles (18 April 2006). "US pressure on 'criminal' N Korea". BBC News. Archived from the original on 28 July 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  10. "Defector says he's fed up with North Korean dictatorship", CNN, 12 February 1997, archived from the original on 23 January 2008, retrieved 30 October 2007
  11. Pollack, Andrew (17 February 1997), "Korean shooting is casting cloud on signs of thaw", The New York Times, archived from the original on 8 April 2008, retrieved 30 October 2007
  12. Pollack, Andrew (19 February 1997), "North Korea's Leader Says 'Cowards' Are Welcome to Leave", The New York Times, retrieved 30 October 2007
  13. Foster-Carter, Aidan (30 November 2000), "Hwang Jang-yop: an enemy of which state?", Asia Times, archived from the original on 15 January 2006, retrieved 30 October 2007
  14. Hwang, Jang-yop, "Remark on North Korean, South Korea, and the Reunification by Hwang Jang Yop, the Former International Secretary of the North Korea Workers' Party", The Daily NK, archived from the original on 18 August 2009, retrieved 2 August 2009
  15. Hwang, Jang-yop (21 December 2009), "Thoughts of Those Left Behind", Daily NK, archived from the original on 22 March 2012, retrieved 17 June 2010
  16. Green, Chris. "A Quiet Voice Lost in the Shuffle Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine," Daily NK, June 1, 2012. Accessed 2016-01-03.
  17. Lee, Chul-jae; Ser, Myo-ja (21 April 2010). "North assassins foiled in bid to kill top defector: Trained in China, posed as refugees to murder Kim's ex-mentor Hwang". Joongang Daily. Archived from the original on 21 October 2010. Retrieved 21 April 2010.
  18. Ser, Myo-ja; Yoo, Jee-ho (22 April 2010), "Assassins won't rat on spies in South", Joongang Ilbo, archived from the original on 24 April 2010, retrieved 22 April 2010
  19. "North Koreans jailed in assassination plot", CNN, 1 July 2010, retrieved 16 July 2010
  20. "S Korea arrests 'N Korean agent'", Al Jazeera English, 20 October 2010, archived from the original on 22 October 2010, retrieved 22 October 2010
  21. Mok Yong Jae (10 October 2010). "The 20 Books Hwang Left Behind". Daily NK. Archived from the original on 23 December 2015. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
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