27 Facts About Pak Chong-ae

Pak Chong-ae, known as Pak Den-ai, was a North Korean politician.

Pak Chong-ae was already an experienced communist at the time of the liberation of Korea, and she had studied in the Soviet Union and worked for its intelligence service.

Pak Chong-ae is grouped variously among either the Soviet or the Domestic faction of the party.

Pak Chong-ae was the first chairperson of the North Korean Central Committee of the Korean Democratic Women's League, the country's mass organization for women.

Pak Chong-ae is the only woman to have served in the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea until the appointment of Kim Yo Jong.

Pak Chong-ae has been characterized as being the only woman ever to have been truly important in the WPK.

Pak Chong-ae was awarded with the International Stalin Prize in 1950.

Pak Chong-ae was born in 1907 in North Hamgyong Province in the north of the Korean Peninsula.

Pak Chong-ae went to the Soviet Union to study in the Moscow State University.

Pak Chong-ae then worked for the Soviet Union as an intelligence agent before entering politics.

At the time of the liberation of Korea, Pak Chong-ae was already considered an experienced domestic communist.

Pak Chong-ae supported Kim Il Sung in the early days of North Korean political life and became one of his strongest supporters.

Pak Chong-ae served in its 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Central Committees.

Pak Chong-ae was a deputy to the Supreme People's Assembly.

Pak Chong-ae became one of five members, and the only woman, in a Political Committee that solidified Kim's rule.

Pak Chong-ae was highly influential within the committee and was one of Kim's closest confidantes.

Pak Chong-ae was present when he signed the Armistice document and accompanied him on trips abroad.

Pak Chong-ae was the first chairperson of the North Korean Central Committee of the Korean Democratic Women's League.

Pak Chong-ae played a leading role in the Women's International Democratic Federation.

Pak Chong-ae was a member of its executive committee in 1948.

Pak Chong-ae received the International Stalin Prize in 1950 and starred in Joris Ivens and Jerzy Bossak's anti-war documentary film Peace Will Win.

Pak Chong-ae has revived the North Korean Order of the National Flag, both first and second class.

Pak Chong-ae lasted in mid-century North Korean political life when purges removed many other senior politicians.

Pak Chong-ae was the only woman to have served in the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea, the highest decision-making body of the party, until Kim Yo Jong.

Pak Chong-ae herself was purged by Kim at the 2nd Conference of the WPK in October 1966.

The conference saw purges of mostly officials in charge of economic affairs, but Pak Chong-ae was not one of them, implying that she was purged because of Kim's desire to concentrate power.

Pak Chong-ae's influence had been greatly weakened by then and she was allowed to hold minor positions only.