Volta
Person1876 – 1949

Kim Gu

Known as Baekbeom; founded the Korean Patriotic Organization and led the Liberation Army as Chairman of the Provisional Government

Known by his pen name Baekbeom, he was born to a poor family in Haeju, joined the Donghak movement and led the attack on Haeju in 1894. In 1896 at Chihapo he killed a Japanese man to avenge the murder of Empress Myeongseong; sentenced to death, he was spared by King Gojong's order and later escaped. He then founded schools in Hwanghae, joined the Sinminhoe and was imprisoned in the Anak Incident of 1911.

In 1919 he went to Shanghai and became police chief of the Provisional Government, later serving as its premier and chairman and keeping it alive through its hardest years. In 1931 he formed the Korean Patriotic Organization, which carried out the attacks of Yi Bong-chang and Yun Bong-gil and won the support of the Chinese Nationalist government. In 1940 he founded the Korean Liberation Army in Chongqing.

Returning home in November 1945, he led opposition to trusteeship and, travelling to Pyongyang for North–South talks in 1948, opposed a separate government in the South. On 26 June 1949 he was shot dead at Gyeonggyojang in Seoul by army lieutenant An Du-hui. In "My Wish", in his autobiography Baekbeom ilji, he wrote that what he wanted without limit was "the power of a high culture". He was posthumously awarded the Republic of Korea Medal in 1962.

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12 related events

  1. 1
    1919Founding of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Koreaparticipant

    After the March First Movement, on 11 April 1919, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was founded in Shanghai, the first Korean government to adopt a democratic republic. In September it merged the several provisional governments.

  2. 2
    1923National Representatives' Conferencerelated figure

    Delegates of the independence movement at home and abroad met in Shanghai to decide the future of the Provisional Government. The "creation" and "reform" factions clashed and the conference broke up.

  3. 1931Korean Patriotic Organizationleader

    To revive the stagnant Provisional Government, Kim Gu organized the Korean Patriotic Organization in Shanghai to carry out armed attacks.

  4. 3
    1932Yi Bong-chang's Attackrelated figure

    Korean Patriotic Organization member Yi Bong-chang threw a bomb at the Japanese emperor’s procession outside the Sakuradamon gate in Tokyo. The emperor was unhurt, but Japan was badly shaken.

  5. 4
    1932Yun Bong-gil's Attack in Hongkou Parkrelated figure

    Korean Patriotic Organization member Yun Bong-gil threw a bomb onto the platform at the celebration of the emperor’s birthday and the Shanghai victory in Hongkou Park, killing and wounding Japanese commanders.

  6. 5
    1935Korean National Revolutionary Partyrelated figure

    The Uiyeoldan, the Korean Independence Party, the Korean Revolutionary Party and others formed the National Revolutionary Party in Nanjing, the fruit of the drive for a single party in China proper.

  7. 6
    1940Founding of the Korean Liberation Armyleader

    Settled in Chongqing, the Provisional Government founded the Korean Liberation Army under Commander-in-Chief Ji Cheong-cheon; the Korean Volunteer Corps joined it in 1942.

  8. 7
    1941Founding Principles of the Republic of Korearelated figure

    The Provisional Government issued its Founding Principles, based on Jo So-ang’s Doctrine of Three Equalities, setting out the state to be built after liberation.

  9. 8
    1943Cairo Declarationrelated figure

    The leaders of the United States, Britain and China met in Cairo and declared that Korea would become free and independent in due course, the first international pledge of Korean independence.

  10. 9
    1945Planned Homeland Advance Operationleader

    The Korean Liberation Army trained with the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) for an operation into Korea, but Japan surrendered before it could be carried out.

  11. 10
    1945 – 1946Anti-Trusteeship Movementleader

    Kim Gu, Syngman Rhee and the right opposed trusteeship; the left at first opposed it too, then switched to supporting the Moscow decision.

  12. 11
    1948North–South Negotiationsleader

    Opposing a separate election in the south, Kim Gu and Kim Gyu-sik met northern leaders in Pyongyang, without result.

Related works

Dramatized works (films, dramas, novels) may differ from the historical record.

People who appear alongside

  • Kim Kyu-sik1881 – 1950

    Envoy of the New Korea Youth Party to the Paris Peace Conference, later Vice-Chairman of the Provisional Government

  • Syngman Rhee1875 – 1965

    First President of the Provisional Government, who worked through diplomacy in the US; later first President of the Republic of Korea

  • Ji Cheong-cheon1888 – 1957

    Commander of the Korean Independence Army in the joint Korea–China campaigns and Commander-in-Chief of the Liberation Army

  • Ahn Chang-ho1878 – 1938

    Founder of the Sinminhoe and the Heungsadan; as Interior Minister of the Provisional Government he set up the yeontongje network

  • Kim Won-bong1898 – 1958

    Leader of the Uiyeoldan, the National Revolutionary Party and the Korean Volunteer Corps; Deputy Commander of the Liberation Army

  • Jo So-ang1887 – 1958

    Author of the Doctrine of Three Equalities, the basis of the 1941 Founding Principles

  • Lee Beom-seok1900 – 1972

    Officer at the Battle of Cheongsan-ri, later chief of staff and Second Detachment commander of the Korean Liberation Army

  • Yi Dong-hwi1873 – 1935

    Vice-president of the Korean Gwangbokgun Government and first Premier of the Provisional Government; founded the Korean Socialist Party

Themes this person appears in

  • World War II and Korea1937 – 1945

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

  • Changing Unification Policies1948 – 2018

    From “march north” to the Panmunjom Declaration — inter-Korean relations from confrontation to dialogue, through joint statements and agreements to summits (up to 2018)

  • Republican China and Imperial Japan1912 – 1949

    The age when the Republic of China, born of the 1911 Revolution, passed through warlord division, the May Fourth Movement, the United Front and the Northern Expedition, fought Japan’s invasion and split in civil war — as Japan moved from Taishō democracy through the Manchurian Incident and military coups to the war in China and the Co-Prosperity Sphere, and colonized Korea resisted through the March First Movement and armed struggle

  • World War II1939 – 1945

    From the invasion of Poland to the surrender of Japan — the largest war in human history, across Europe, Asia and the Pacific

  • Pyongyang194 BC – 2007

    From Wanggeom-seong of Gojoseon to the inter-Korean summits — capital of Goguryeo, Western Capital of Goryeo, the great city on the Taedong