Kim Chang-ryong was a high-ranking officer in the Republic of Korea Army, the head of the Korean Counter Intelligence Corps, and South Korean President Syngman Rhee's most trusted right-hand man.
11 Facts About Kim Chang-ryong
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Kim Chang-ryong was born in 1920 to a poor peasant family in Kinya-gun, Kankyonan-do, Korea, Empire of Japan.
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In 1941, Kim cunningly assumed the appearance of a beggar to get close to Wang Gunlai, an infamous Chinese spymaster.
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Kim Chang-ryong again managed to break loose by knocking out the soldier guarding him with a chair, and escaping to South Korea.
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Kim Chang-ryong arrived in Seoul in May 1946, joined several different corps of the Republic of Korea Army and was eventually assigned to G-2.
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Kim Chang-ryong earned President Syngman Rhee's trust with the arrests of Kim Chang-ryong Sam-Yong and Lee Joo-Ha, two key members of the Workers' Party of South Korea.
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Armed with the favored connection to the country's leader, Kim Chang-ryong perhaps became somewhat reckless in his investigations and obviously made serious enemies among army officers, many of whom were indeed involved in corruption business or subversive activities.
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Kim Chang-ryong's quick rise through the ranks did not help the growing dislike some of his peers felt toward him.
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Also, Kim Chang-ryong had never been part of the very tight community of frontline officers that had formed during the Korean War, which worsened the estrangement from most of his colleagues.
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Kim Chang-ryong's enemies had already tried several times to assassinate him but all attempts had failed.
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Kim Gu's relatives even urged the South Korean government to exhume Kim Chang-Ryong's remains and to banish them from the National Military Cemetery of Daejeon.