14 Facts About Pak Kum-chol

Pak Kum-chol was sent to work at a factory in the countryside and was either executed or died by suicide in May 1967.

Pak Kum-chol was born in 1911 in Kapsan, Kankyohoku-do, Korea, Empire of Japan.

Pak Kum-chol participated in communist guerrilla activities in since the early 1930s.

Pak Kum-chol became a founding member of the underground Kapsan Operation Committee, which fought alongside Kim against the Japanese.

Pak Kum-chol had risen in rank to become the vice premier of the state.

Pak Kum-chol was formally the fourth-highest-ranking member of the Political Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, but in truth the second most influential.

Pak Kum-chol was annoyed by the ballooning cult of personality of Kim Il-sung and how it neglected the experiences of people like him who had sacrificed a lot to the country during the liberation of Korea.

Pak Kum-chol gathered many influential supporters around him, including Yi Hyo-sun, Kim To-man, Pak Kum-chol Yong-guk, Ho Sok-son, Ko Hyok, Ha Ang-chon, and Rim Chun-chu.

An album from 1964 had Pak Tal and Pak Kum-chol's photos printed next to that of Kim Il Sung.

An unauthorized biography on Pak Kum-chol was apparently made while dissemination of propaganda materials on Kim Il Sung was neglected.

Pak Kum-chol was condemned by Choe Yong-gon, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, of proliferating "feudal, Confucian ideas".

Pak Kum-chol was accused of not supporting the party's military line; he openly ridiculed Kim Il Sung's slogan "one against a hundred" by concluding that a literal interpretation of it could not be true.

Pak Kum-chol was accused of promoting the old Kapsan Operation Committee members into important posts.

Pak Kum-chol was sent to work in a factory in the countryside and was either executed or committed suicide in May 1967.