Volta
PoliticsJuly 1942

Korean Independence League and Korean Volunteer Army

Socialist independence activists in north China founded the Korean Independence League around Kim Du-bong and reorganized the North China Detachment of the Volunteer Corps as the Korean Volunteer Army.

Korean Volunteer Army soldiers painting slogans — northern China, 1940s
Korean Volunteer Army soldiers painting slogans — northern China, 1940s

Unknown author · Public domain · Source

It was formed in July 1942 from the North China Korean Youth Federation (founded in the Taihang Mountains, later centred on Yan’an), with a programme of expelling Japanese imperialism and founding a democratic republic.

The Volunteer Army fought the Japanese in north China alongside the Communist Eighth Route Army (Hujiazhuang, 1941; anti-sweep campaigns, 1942). After liberation its members went to North Korea and formed the "Yan’an faction".

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States at the time
Republic of China
Places
Yan'an

People

  • Kim Du-bong1889

    leader · Hangeul scholar and pupil of Ju Si-gyeong who led the Korean Independence League in north China

Before and after

Earlier
1941 Founding Principles of the Republic of Korea
Later
1943 Cairo Declaration

Themes that include this event

  • World War II and Korea1937 – 1945

    Wartime mobilization and exploitation, independence armies, from the Cairo Declaration to liberation