(1888PressRelease)
April 23, 2007 - Hong Myong Hui was one of those who have left traces of life on the road of patriotism throughout their lives.
He was born in Kwaesan County, North Chungchong Province, in 1888 in the last period of the Ri Dynasty when the situation within and without was very complex owing to the incessant intrusion of capitalist powers and submission of the feudal ruling circles to great powers.
He had a strong sense of justice and was sensitive to the trend of the times from his early years, so he took an active part in the patriotic cultural movement, lamenting over the nation’s destiny when dark clouds of national ruin hung heavily over the country.
After the Japanese imperialists militarily occupied Korea, he went among the people and became an active member of the enlightenment movement for anti-Japanese patriotism and nationalist movement. In the 1920s he worked as the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Tonga Ilbo and director of Sidae Ilbo and waged patriotic literary activities. At the same time he worked as the secretary of the anti-Japanese organization Singan Society in charge of its general affairs and energetically conducted anti-Japanese patriotic activities. In the course of this, he was arrested twice and lived behind the bars for several years, but never yielded his will of patriotism.
In the days when oppression by the Japanese imperialists grew intensified and their plot to obliterate the Korean nation became more undisguised, he wrote the novel Rim Kkok Jong in an effort to defend the national spirit. At that time he heard the news of the Battle of Pochonbo organized and led by Kim Il Sung, a legendary anti-Japanese hero, which dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese imperialists. Stories about Kim Il Sung’s revolutionary activities imbued Hong Myong Hui with a great confidence in national resurrection and aroused his feelings of respect and reverence for him.
Hong Myong Hui sponsored the Preparatory Committee for Welcoming General Kim Il Sung with other patriotic figures in Seoul in south Korea after the country was liberated in August 1945 and conducted a vigorous patriotic struggle for national reunification in the territory occupied by the US imperialists.
In spite of obstructive attempts of the US imperialists and their stooges, he attended the Joint Conference of Representatives of Political Parties and Public Organizations in North and South Korea held in Pyongyang in April Juche 37 (1948). Later, he worked as the first vice-premier of the DPRK.
President Kim Il Sung always paid deep concern to his health and work, and looked after him with all loving care.
Working energetically till his great age of eighty as vice-president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly and chairman of the Committee for Peaceful National Reunification, he made a great contribution to the cause of national reunification and socialist construction by thoroughly implementing the instructions of President Kim Il Sung and the Party policies.
His descendants also render great services to the country and people at important posts in many sectors under the warm solicitude and trust of the Party and the leader.
