[KS] Mu Chong

[Andrei Lankov]

Dear Balazs,

I suspect that the Hungarian document is wrong, although circumstances of Mu
Chong's death are indeed shrouded in mystery (like most of the NK history,
I'd add). In 1991 South Korean journalists located Mu Chong's daughter in
China and conducted a series of interveiws with her. According to these
interveiws, Mu Chong left North Korea for China in late 1950. In 1952 he
returned to Korea - allegedly, with some help from Peng De-huai. However, by
that time Mu Chong's health had seriously deteriorated, and soon after his
return, in October 1952, he died at a military hosital in Pyongyang. See:
Mirok ChosOn minjujuUi inmin konghwaguk. Seoul: Chung'ang ilbo sa, 1992,
pp.142-148.

In 1994 Mu Chong (BTW, his real name was Kim Mu-jOng) was officially
recognized as one of the founding heroes of the DPRK, and his tomb is now to
be found in the Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetry near Pyongyang. According to
Hangere sinmun journalist who saw the tomb (see: HS, 22 July 2002), the
inscription states that he died 9 August, 1951 - an obvious contradiction
with the above-mentioned interveiw.

However, in course of my own research I have once encountered a situation
when the 'official' tomb inscription gives a very suspicious date of death
(the case of Pak Ui-wan, a prominent Soviet-Korean offcial). Thus, we have
to be careful. Anyway, it appears unlikely that Mu Chong was executed.

Best regards

Dr. Andrei Lankov
China & Korea Centre,
Faculty of Asian Studies,
Australian National University,
ACT, 0200, Australia
fax 61-2-6125-3144




-----Original Message-----
From: Koreanstudies-admin at koreaweb.ws
[mailto:Koreanstudies-admin at koreaweb.ws]On Behalf Of Balazs Szalontai
Sent: Wednesday, 16 April 2003 10:43 PM
To: Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Subject: [KS] Mu Chong


Dear All,

I have a question concerning the death of Mu Chong, a prominent member of
the so-called Yan'an faction in North Korea. In secondary literature it is
usually stated that Mu, having been dismissed at the end of 1950 because of
the KPA's serious setbacks, went to China and died there (supposedly from
natural causes). However, a Hungarian archival document written in 1965,
which describes the history of the Korean Communist movement from the
beginning to 1964, states that Mu Chong "and some others" were executed "a
few months after the outbreak of the war." Is there any way to know which
version is closer to the truth?

Yours sincerely,
Balazs Szalontai
Central European University
Department of History
e-mail: hphszb01 at phd.ceu.hu