Kim Hongil

Early years

Kim Hongil was born on September 23, 1898 in the Yang Ha Myeong area, in the village of U Son Son Tong, located in the province of Pyeongan-Pukto in Ronchon County, in the family of a mathematics teacher; his father's name was Kim Chingon; was the third son in the family. After the occupation of Korea by Japan in 1910, the family fled to China; in 1913, Kim Hongil went to study in the Manchu city of Mukden, in a Chinese elementary school, but after studying for only one semester, he returned to Pyeongchang-pukto, where he joined the independence movement; he was noticed by Cho Mansik, who worked as the director of the Osan school in the city of Jeonju ^[5] ; there, Kim Hongil continued and subsequently completed his studies with honors ^[8] . He then received a recommendation from a school-influential person named Lee Seung-hong to serve as a teacher at Kyung Sin School in Hwanghedo Province. In July 1918, after participating in the so-called “incident of graduates, Osan” was arrested, but then released the same year, after which he was forced to flee to China, settling in Shanghai ^[5] .

Chinese period

After arriving in China, Kim Hongil managed to get to Shanghai thanks to the help of the editor of the newspaper Jugo Ribao (救國 日報, literally - “Patriotic Newspaper”) of the Chinese patriot Huang Zemin ^[5] ; taking the name Wang Xiong, he enrolled in military science at the Army School in Guizhou Province, where He Yingqin was the rector ^[9] . In June 1920, after graduation, Kim Hongil was appointed commander of a special reconnaissance platoon under the commander in chief of the Guizhou army ^[3] . Then he joined the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai. In March 1921, according to the directive of No Baek Lin, Minister of Defense of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, he was sent to Manchuria, where he joined a battle group of Korean emigrants in the Gando region, planning to go with them to the Soviet city of Iman (now Dalnerechensk) . But in June of that year, the Russian corps of the Korean Liberation Army was completely defeated by the Soviet Red Army, which forced Kim Honilya to abandon his plans. At the end of 1921, the Korean Volunteer Army was created, at the headquarters of which Kim Hongil was appointed to command the 2nd Battalion ^[5] . In 1923 he was appointed commander of the Siberian Corps of the Korean Volunteer Army ^[10] .

In the National Revolutionary Army

In 1925, Kim Hong Il joined the National Revolutionary Army ^[11] , then went to the Wampu Academy of Ground Forces, located in Guangzhou, where he was appointed third-level lecturer in specialties related to armaments. In July 1926 he went on a Northern campaign, having come at the disposal of the front commander of the National Revolutionary Army in the area of ​​the city of Swatou, where he served as an officer: first, major, then lieutenant colonel ^[3] , later received the assignment to command the battalion, eventually becoming commander shelf ^[5] ; also was deputy commander of the garrison of the fortress Usun ^[1] ; in 1928 he was empowered as the chief of armaments at the arsenal of Shanghai and was also the head of the security battalion at the same facility. Then he combined the post of head of the information department of the 19th Army, responsible for collecting information behind enemy lines; He outlined, as targets for sabotage, primarily Japanese ships, aircraft hangars and warehouses of the rear services; it was only after the signing of the Shanghai Armistice Agreement that he stopped the implementation of these plans ^[12] .

Kim Honjil, while in the post of manager at the arsenal, developed, together with the Korean patriot Kim Gu, a plan for a terrorist attack in Hongkou Park, which Yong Bongil put into practice. The goal was to physically eliminate some senior Japanese officials in Shanghai. He commissioned Kim Gu in advance: the director and director of the arsenal, Song Sikhyo, had to be connected, and Yong Bongil made an explosive device that looked completely similar in form to a large meal-delivery dish — that was what should have been brought to the meeting room ^{[ 13]} . On June 29, 1932, Yoon Bon Gil carried out the plan: those attending the celebrations in honor of the emperor’s birth, Japanese general Yoshinori Shirakawa (he died shortly after the attack), Sadaji Kawabata, Shigemitsu Mamoru and a number of other high-ranking representatives of the Japanese command were seriously injured. After that, the Japanese authorities began to conduct active investigative actions against persons of Korean nationality involved in the incident in Hunkou Park; Kim Hongil, with the help of the deputy director of the military department Chen Yi, changed his name to Chinese - Wang Yishu; then he hid successively in Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanchang and other cities ^[14] . A year and two months later, he took an active part in the punitive campaign against the Chinese Red Army in Jiangxi Province, and was also commander of the 2nd Army with the rank of colonel ^[3] .

Second Sino-Japanese War

In 1937 - at the time of the outbreak of war with Japan - Kim Hongil worked as a teacher at the Jiang Lin Central Officer School in Hubei Province, preparing about 100 Korean cadets who were enrolled in the lists of a Korean volunteer detachment in 1938 ^[5] . In the summer of the same year, General Luo Joining (羅卓英) appointed Kim Hongil to the 109th division of Guizhou Plain Army; during that period, General Bo Huizhan commanded the division ^[9] . In the first ten days of July, the 102nd division participated in the battle for Wuhan, and Kim Hongil took over as the officer commanding the division ^[9] ; then this division immediately had to enter the battle north-east of Nanchang, along with the heaviest casualties in the battle near Wanjialin from the Japanese, by the 106th division. In January 1939, the 102nd Division was transferred to Jiangxi (江西省) Province in the eastern regions of Zhaozhou County; she began to defend the southeast coast near Lake Poinhu. There Kim Khongil organized units in which the main backbone of the personnel took training courses ^[9] .

Since Kim Hongil was fluent in Japanese, while serving in the 102nd Division, he headed the investigative department, where interrogations of Japanese prisoners of war were carried out. In February 1939, when a Japanese aircraft was first shot down, Kim Hongil personally went to the site to interrogate a high-ranking Japanese military intelligence officer captured by soldiers of the 102nd Division; it was possible to learn that the Japanese were planning air strikes to inflict damage on the manpower and rear infrastructure of the Chinese army, and information was received on supporting upcoming attacks on the cities of Nanchang and Wuhan. This information was immediately taken into account by the command of government forces on the 3rd front ^[9] . In May of that year, almost a year after the beginning of the command of the 102nd Division, Kim Hongil was promoted to major general of the Chinese army of the central region ^[6] ; Luo Joining was removed from the post of commander of the headquarters of the 19th Army ^[15] . At that time, the 19th Army defended the Nanchang area from the Japanese 34th Division; the defense was very strong, this prompted the Japanese to launch a powerful offensive against the Chinese army, which went down in history as the battle of Shangao. Kim Honjil from the very beginning of the battle temporarily served as division commander ^[16] .

In January 1942, Kim Hongil, together with the officers of the command of the Korean government army, Choi Yundok and Pak Sichhan, entered the Chinese Army Academy in Chongqing ^[12] , and in December 1943 completed the 6th stage of the special training course ^{[3 ]} . Then, in 1944, in Chongqing, he became an officer in the administration of the inspector general for training cadets (Lo Zhouying was the inspector general at that time) ^{[9] [17]} . In May 1945, representatives of the interim government of the Republic of Korea asked him to take a new position; in June of that year, he headed the headquarters of the Korean Liberation Army ; together with Lieutenant General Wang Yau, they planned to hold four-way negotiations on the return of Wuhan. However, here Korean-Chinese relations began to change not for the better: not without the help of the US Strategic Information Division (OSS), it was decided to use the Korean Liberation Army against North Korean formations ^[18] , since in August of the same year Japan announced its final and unconditional surrender ^{[ 5]} .

After the war

At the end of World War II, Kim Hongil, who served in northeast China, continued to actively accumulate administrative experience; he received an invitation from the commander of law enforcement, Lieutenant General Du Yumin, then went to Jinzhou City ^[16] , where he received a senior officer position from the commander of law enforcement in the northeastern provinces ^[5] ; in parallel, he reported to the head of the Department of Korean Emigrants, dealing with the repatriation of Koreans from the northeastern Chinese provinces to their homeland, as well as resolving their property issues. During the work of Kim Honjil as head of the emigration department, many groups and factions from emigrant Koreans started a civil strife for power and spheres of influence, and he was also drawn into these conflicts ^[17] . In August 1946, the Korean Resistance Party, together with the headquarters of the National Government in northeastern China, charged Kim Hongjil with regard to his involvement in ties with the North Korean People's Revolutionary Party ^[19] , but subsequently these charges were unsubstantiated. In September 1946, the post of head of the Department of Korean Emigrants in the North-East Law Enforcement Administration was reorganized to the level of a diplomatic worker in the Republic of China; then Kim Hongil was transferred to Nanjing ^[16] , and in July 1948 received the position of Inspector of Defense with the rank of lieutenant general. In August of that year, the Republic of Korea was proclaimed; Kim Hongil received an official letter signed by Chiang Kai-shek, the President of the Republic of China; the letter referred to the return to their homeland ^[3] .

Return to the Korean Army

Immediately after returning to Korea, Kim Hong Il joined the armed forces of the Republic of Korea on December 10, 1948 ^[8] ; in 1949 he became the rector of the Korean Army School, was confirmed with the rank of major general, then in June 1950 he became the rector of the Army Academy ^{[3] [5]} . At that time, Korean army officers were not numerous graduates of Japanese military schools, where in the past the vast majority were military personnel from Japan and Manchuria ^[20] , so Kim Hongil was one of the few in the army who received training in China ^[21] , commanded connections and more than others versed in military matters ^[22] . In addition, he was the only general in the Korean army who had rich experience in commanding in real combat conditions ^[11] .

At the beginning of the Korean War

On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began. Kim Honjila that day, along with other generals and officers, Chi Chonghok, Kim Sukwon and Song Hoson, summoned the general commanders - chief of the general staff, Major General Chae Pyeongtok and Minister of National Defense Sin Songmo; at the meeting, decisions were to be taken on countermeasures. Kim Hongil believed that the situation on the front line in the Yizhongbu area was already critical, and made a proposal to establish a line of defense along the Hangan River, but Chae Pyeongtok and Sin Sonmo both decided to defend Seoul ^{[11] [23]} . On June 27, Kim Hongil organized the Army Strategic Command Directorate; he inspected the headquarters of the first division, deployed along the Bonychchon area on the front line, where the division commander, Colonel Baek Sonyöp, urgently requested his thoughts on the real need for retreat. Kim Honjil, returning to headquarters, extremely harshly demanded that Chae Pyeongtok start the retreat, but he still did not make a decision ^{[24] [25]} . On June 28, the Korean People’s Army (KPA) broke through the defensive fortifications of the South Korean army north of Seoul, and already in the afternoon the enemy occupied the entire capital ^[20] .

After the fall of Seoul, the headquarters of the South Korean army was relocated to the south, both banks of the Hangan River - in both Sikhin and Yondin - turned into a front line, where a line of confrontation with the North Korean army lay ^[7] . The headquarters of the southerners' army was located in Sikhyn, it was placed in the building of the infantry school; there Kim Khongyil was the commander in chief, he was subordinated to the 7th division (division commander - Brigadier General Yu Cheheung), as well as the capital’s defense division, commanded by Colonel Lee Chonghang. The command of the headquarters was entrusted with the round-robin defense of Seoul, and subsequently it was these formations that were able to hold off the rapidly advancing army of northerners for a long time ^[24] .

At Kim Khongyil’s headquarters in the Sikhin area, Brigadier General Kim Pekyil and a number of other commanders were forced to return all the soldiers who fled from the battlefield in a panic and keep them within the school territory; then infantry formations were again formed from them and again thrown into battle on the front line. The 4 infantry battalions formed in this way were sent to help the defending 7th division on the flank of the Noryanzhin section, and 2 battalions and the 5th division were sent to the capital’s defense section in the Yondyn area; another battalion was in reserve ^[20] . In addition to the aforementioned, Yizhongbu units and units from Donduchon, retreating to the south, as well as cadets of military schools along with the 1st division from the northern bank of the Imzhingan River, all of them were now subordinate to Kim Hongil, who managed to organize interaction between them; so it was again possible to create combat-ready units. Under such conditions, the headquarters in Sikhin managed to provide the South Korean army with the opportunity to hold the defense of the Hangang River for 6 days ^[24] , after which manpower and weapons were replenished ^[7] , and the forces of the Americans were already concentrated to help the southerners; in addition, a powerful all-round perimeter defense was installed in Busan, which made it possible to provide troops with everything necessary for a fairly long time ^{[4] [22]} .

In early July, the Sikhyn headquarters was reorganized into the 1st Army, and Kim Hongil was appointed commander in chief. The capital division (commander - Brigadier General Lee Chunsik), the 2nd division (commander - Colonel Li Hanlim) obeyed him; these compounds were responsible for containing the onslaught of the Korean People’s Army on the Seoul – Yongin and Seoul – Lichkhon lines ^[20] . Arriving in Chuncheon Namdo, Colonel Baek Sönöp, the commander of the 1st Division, also became subordinate to Kim Hongil ^{[7] [24]} . In the second decade of July, the 1st army of Kim Honjil together with the American 24th division on the eastern flank near Chincheon and Cheongju managed to stop the offensive of the North Korean army ^[20] . At the same time, on July 11, the South Korean army used artillery, which caused severe damage to the 2nd division of the enemy, and the next day the 3rd division of the northerners underwent a powerful attack, which forced it to withdraw to the city of Cheongju ^[20] .

Naktong River

At the end of July, Kim Khongyil's 1st Army reached Gyeongsangbuk-do, in charge of defending the Andon area; then the 12th division from the 2nd army of the northerners opposing the southerners began a powerful artillery bombardment to break through the front. In accordance with the directive of the 8th US Army, on the early morning of August 1, the 1st Army was to move to the Naktong River south of the front line, but the advancement of two divisions of the 1st Army, the capital (commander - Brigadier General Kim Sokwon) and the 8th ( commander - Lee Song), slowed down due to fierce disputes about the order of withdrawal between them ^[26] . In early August, the front line for the 1st Army gradually shifted back to the eastern edge of the Busan ring defense system ^[20] .

Under the command of Kim Honjil, troops entered Busan; there were no other threats to the defense of the city, except for the 8th KPA division; the commander of the 2nd army of the northerners, Lieutenant General Kim Muchon planned to overcome the East Korean mountains and leave with the 12th division and with the 766th corps to the east coast near the city of Pohang ^[20] . But on August 27, the 12th division of the northerners suddenly attacked the 17th regiment of the capital division of the 1st army of the southerners on the northern flank of the Kikye section, and then threw them south ^[27] . Such a course of events ran counter to the expectations of the 8th US Army ^[20] , forcing Lieutenant General Walton Walker to urgently send his Deputy Major General John Kurt to Kim Hongyil’s headquarters in Gyeongju. There he took over the joint command of the 3rd Division of the South Korean 1st Army and the 21st American Regiment, creating the so-called "Jackson Special Forces"; he also organized a command center in Gyeongju ^[28] . Kurt immediately made his suggestions for a counterattack on August 28 to the Kikye area, but the 1st Army of Kim Honjil suffered heavy losses, was in a state of exhaustion, and was not capable of any intense retaliatory action. Until August 29, the metropolitan division agreed with the 21st Regiment of the Americans on counterattack plans to join the northerners, and then an attack on the Kikye area was launched, and in the early morning of the 30th this section was repulsed from the enemy ^[28] . In early September, the KPA approached the northern outskirts of Gyeongju; Kim Honjil expressed concern and fears of being surrounded, he proposed away ^[29] , but in the end the North Korean army was never able to enter this area ^[28] .

In early September, Kim Hongil was removed from his command post ^[28] , becoming a deputy at Kim Packiel ^{[29] [30]} . Later, he was sent from Busan to the 1st Army (Gyeongju city) to command the Donne Combined Arms Infantry School ^[7] . In March 1951 he was promoted to lieutenant general. At that time in the South Korean army it was the highest military rank ^[24] .

Retired

In March 1951, Kim Hongil resigned; in the same year, July 26, he was awarded the highest award of the Republic of Korea - the Order of Military Merit of the highest degree ^[31] . He also received the appointment of the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the Republic of China (Taiwan) - this proposal was made by Chief of Staff Li Bomsik, and approved by President Lee Seung Man ^[17] ; Kim Hongilya was sent to Taiwan to strengthen anti-communist policies there ^[31] . On November 11, he went to Taiwan ^[32] , and on November 23 presented his credentials ^[33] . Over the entire 8-year accreditation period of Kim Hongyil in Taipei, South Korean relations have been strengthened ^[32] , and while in office, he has become close to Chinese diplomat Shao Lucy. Both of these people greatly contributed to the organization of the official visit of Lee Seung Man to Taiwan in January 1953 ^[17] . In June 1960, Kim Hongil was recalled from the post of ambassador, and on June 4, President Chiang Kai-shek personally handed him the Order of the Diamond Star ^[34] .

On May 21, 1961, Kim Hongjil was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea. In the same year, July 21 left this post ^[35] , since there was a government coup and all power was concentrated in the hands of the military - at the so-called “Supreme Council of National Perestroika”, where Kim Honil joined as an adviser; in December he was appointed chairman of the Association of Veterans ^{[5] [36]} , in 1962 he was awarded another state award - “For Merit in the Creation of the State” ^[37] . On February 26, 1965 he headed the association of retired generals ^[38] .

During the reign of Park Junghee, Kim Hongil joined the opposition camp as part of the New Democratic Party; from this party in 1967 he ran for Congress and was elected a party leader in 1971. In December 1972, Kim Hongil published his memoirs under the title "Memoirs of an Old Soldier" ^{[16] [39]} . On May 20, 1977 and June 28, 1979, he was elected 6th and 7th, respectively, as chairman of the “Union of Restoration” ^[40] . He died on August 8, 1980 ^[41] .

• Order of Merit in the Creation of the State
• Military Order "Thegyk"
• Military Order "Ylchi"
• Chunmu Military Order

• Korea Independence Movement
• Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea
• Korean war
• Kim gu
• Kim jono
• Son Wonille
• Baek Sonyöp

• 韓戰 九 週年 紀念 反共 義士 拜會 韓 駐華 大使 金 弘 一 (Chinese) (link not available) . 中央 通訊社 (June 25, 1959). Date of treatment September 13, 2014. Archived on September 14, 2014.
• 訪問 韓國 前任 駐華 大使 金 弘 一 (Chinese) . 台 視 新聞 (May 8, 1975). - "訪問 韓國 前任 駐華 大使 金 弘 一 談 東南亞 越南 高棉 相繼 出線 後 南北 韓 情勢." Date of treatment September 13, 2014. Archived on September 14, 2014.

• An article in the Encyclopedia of Korean National Culture (cor.)