Kim Dal-sam

Kim Dal-sam
Born	1923 Jeju
Died	20 March 1950(1950-03-20) (aged 26–27) Jeongseon County
Nationality	Korean
Occupation(s)	political activist, revolutionary guerilla, school teacher
Years active	1945–1950
Known for	leading role in Jeju uprising
Korean name
Hangul	김달삼
Hanja	金達三
Revised Romanization	Kim Dalsam
McCune–Reischauer	Kim Talsam
Birth name
Hangul	이승진
Hanja	李承晉
Revised Romanization	Lee Seungjin
McCune–Reischauer	Lee Sŭngchin

Kim Dal-sam (Korean: 김달삼; 1923 – 20 March 1950) was a Korean school teacher and communist revolutionary. He led insurgents of the Workers' Party of South Korea during the Jeju uprising.

Background

Kim Dal-sam was born Yi Song-jin (이승진) in 1923 and grew up in Jeju Province, Korea.^: 158 During Japanese occupation, Kim spent time in Osaka, Japan before moving to Tokyo to study mathematics at Chuo University (Tokyo Central University). During World War II, Kim was conscripted by the Japanese government to work for the Hakbyeong shipbuilding company. In January 1945, Kim married the daughter of a man named Gangmunseok Gangyoungae.

After World War II, Kim taught Marxism–Leninism at a middle school in Jeju Province. He also became quite active in politics, serving as an organizer and director for the Workers Party of South Korea (WPSK) in the late 1940s. Kim was an outspoken critic of Koreans who collaborated with the Japanese during occupation and often protested against the government police force on Jeju, demanding unification with the North. Kim was vehemently opposed to the elections planned for 10 May 1948 by the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK) because he thought they would further reinforce Korean division.^{: 156–157} In order to prevent these elections from happening, Kim led an armed rebellion against the government police forces on the island on 3 April 1948, which became known as the Jeju uprising.^: 159

Role in the Jeju uprising

As a leader in the Military Committee of the WPSK Jeju branch, Kim, along with Cho No-gu, planned the 3 April 1948 attacks on government police forces one month prior, in March 1948. When the uprising commenced, Kim’s forces included 400 guerilla fighters and 4,000 members of “self-defense” groups located throughout the island.^{: 159, 166}

On 28 April 1948, the fighting on Jeju stopped as Kim Dal-sam met with the leader of the police forces on the island, Kim Ik-ryeol, to negotiate a truce. Kim Dal-sam’s demands included “the surrender of all police forces, the confiscation of all weapons, punishment of police and rightists who had committed atrocities, withdrawal of rightist youth groups, and assurances that the May 10 elections would be cancelled.”^: 174 Kim Ik-ryeol refused Kim Dal-sam’s demands and hostilities started again three days later.^{: 174 : 31}

In August 1948, with the uprising in full-swing, Kim left Jeju to attend a conference of the Korean Communist party (KCP) on the border town of Haeju, North Korea. At the conference, Kim reported on the positive developments on Jeju, to which the other participants responded with “thunderous applause.”^{: 178 : 34} It was at this same conference that KCP and Soviet Union officials held elections to establish the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).^{: 176–178} Kim returned to Jeju in early to mid-September.^{: 179 : 37}

After the Jeju uprising and death

After Republic of Korea (ROK) forces crushed the Jeju uprising in March 1949, Kim left Jeju for mainland Korea in order to enter the DPRK. On 20 March 1950, Kim's body was found among the dead in the aftermath of a guerrilla battle at Jeongseon County, before the full-scale Korean War began.

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