Kim Hyong-jik

Kim Hyong-jik (Korean: Template:Category handler; 10 July 1894 – 5 June 1926) was a Korean independence activist during Japanese rule. He was the father of the North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, the paternal grandfather of Kim Jong Il, and a great-grandfather of the current leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un.

Biography

Little is known about Kim. Born on 10 July 1894, in the small village of Mangyongdae, situated atop a peak called Mangyungbong (만경봉(萬景峰),"All-Seeing Peak") just 12 kilometers downstream on the Taedong River from Pyongyang, Kim was the son of Kim Pohyŏn (1871–1955). Kim attended Sungshil School (Template:Category handler), which was run by American missionaries, and became a teacher at the Sunhwa school (Template:Category handler) in Mangyongdae in 1913 and the Christian Myongsin school (Template:Category handler) in Ponghwa-ri, Kangdong County in 1916 and later worked as a herbal pharmacist. According to the North Korean official sources, he died as a result of numerous medical problems, including third-degree frostbite.

Kim and his wife attended Christian churches, and Kim even served as a part-time Protestant missionary. It was reported that his son, Kim Il Sung, attended church services during his teenage years before becoming an atheist later in life.

Kim Il Sung often spoke of his father's idea of chiwŏn (지원(志遠), righteous aspirations).

Kim Jong Il's official government biography states that his grandfather was "the leader of the anti-Japanese national liberation movement and was a pioneer in shifting the direction from the nationalist movement to the communist movement in Korea". Kim Hyong-jik is claimed by North Korea to have convened an important meeting of independence activists in November, 1921 memorialized at the Sansong Revolutionary Site.

Family

• Father: Kim Pohyŏn (3 October 1871 – 2 September 1955)
  • Paternal grandfather: Kim Ŭngu (17 June 1848 – 4 October 1878)
  • Paternal grandmother: Lady Yi (Template:Category handler)
• Mother: Yi Poik (Template:Category handler; 31 May 1876 – 18 October 1959)
• Two brothers
  • Kim Hyŏngnok (Template:Category handler)
  • Kim Hyŏnggwŏn (4 November 1905 – 12 January 1936)
• Three sisters
  • Kim Kuil (Template:Category handler)
  • Kim Hyŏngsil (Template:Category handler)
  • Kim Hyŏngpok (Template:Category handler)
• Wife: Kang Pan Sok
  • First son: Kim Il Sung (15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994)
  • Second son: Kim Chol-ju (12 June 1916 – 14 June 1935)
  • Third son: Kim Yong-ju (1920–2021)