General Hong Beom-do Returns to Homeland After 100 Years

[Asia Economy Military Specialist Yang Nak-gyu] General Yeocheon (Yeocheon) Hong Beom-do (Hong Beom-do), who set foot on his homeland for the first time in 100 years, is called a legend of the independence war. Even the Japanese army feared him so much that they called him the "Flying General."

Born on August 27, 1868, in Pyongyang as the son of a farmer, General Hong threw himself into the righteous army struggle during the late Joseon Dynasty. Known for his excellent marksmanship, in 1907 he organized a righteous army centered on gunners in the Hamgyeong-do and Pyeongan-do areas to strike the Japanese army.

According to the "Hong Beom-do Diary," the Japanese colonial forces at the time took his wife and son hostage to arrest General Hong, but when he showed a resolute attitude, they committed the atrocity of killing his family.

General Hong began to devote himself fully to training independence fighters around the time of the forced annexation of Korea by Japan in 1910. At that time, he operated across the border in Manchuria and the Maritime Province. After the March 1st Movement broke out, he established the Korean Independence Army in North Gando and launched domestic invasion operations, including attacking the Japanese army garrison in Hyesanjin, Hamgyeong-do. This operation was the first battle of the independence army units formed in Manchuria and the Maritime Province after the March 1st Movement.

General Hong's victories continued. Leading the Battle of Bongo-dong to victory, he created the most brilliant moment in the history of the independence movement. In this battle in June 1920, where the Japanese army's 19th Division pursuit battalion was annihilated, the Japanese army suffered 157 deaths and about 200 wounded, while the independence army lost only 4 soldiers.

He later participated in the Battle of Cheongsanri. In October of the same year, he joined forces with General Kim Jwa-jin's Northern Military Administration Office to fight a large Japanese retaliatory force. This battle is considered the greatest victory during the Japanese colonial period.

However, as the Japanese army launched suppression operations, General Hong had to move to the Maritime Province. In June 1921, during the "Free City Incident," he sided with the Irkutsk faction and became part of the Soviet army. At that time, General Hong, along with about 50 independence activists including Kim Kyu-sik, Yeo Un-hyung, and Jo Bong-am, met Lenin at the Far Eastern People's Representatives Conference held in Moscow. Lenin presented General Hong with a pistol engraved with his name, 100 gold rubles, and a handwritten certificate by Lenin stating "Commander of the Korean Army."

After retiring from the military in 1923, he worked on a collective farm in the Maritime Province. In November 1937, due to Stalin's forced Korean relocation policy, he was pushed to Kazakhstan in Central Asia. He passed away on October 25, 1943, at the age of 75.

Although General Hong was one of the foremost figures in the anti-Japanese armed struggle, he had been marginalized. Our government posthumously awarded him the Order of Merit for National Foundation with the Presidential Medal in 1962, but he was neglected for some time afterward. In a country where anti-communism was the national policy, a figure who fought as part of the Soviet army and even received gifts from Lenin could not be highly regarded. The same was true in North Korea, where he was ignored because he could be compared to Kim Il-sung.

However, North Korea raised the issue of repatriating General Hong Beom-do's remains in 1993-1994, renewing interest, and discussions on repatriation began with the Kazakhstani government alongside our government.

The momentum increased when the Moon Jae-in administration took office in April 2019. At that time, President Moon instructed to promote the repatriation of General Hong's remains while being briefed on his Central Asia tour plans. Since then, the government repeatedly requested cooperation from Kazakhstan for the repatriation of General Hong's remains, and in December of the same year, Kazakhstan expressed for the first time its intention to promote repatriation during the planned visit of the Kazakhstani president to Korea in 2020. President Moon publicly announced the plan to repatriate General Hong's remains in his March 1st Independence Movement Day speech last year.

Subsequently, with the visit of the Kazakhstani president, which had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, being realized, General Hong Beom-do's remains will be able to set foot on his homeland. It has been exactly 100 years since he moved to the Maritime Province in 1921 to escape the large-scale Japanese army suppression after victories in the Battles of Bongo-dong and Cheongsanri.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.