Korea Herald publishes column on General Kim Chang-ryong in South Korea

In South Korea, The Korea Herald published a column by professor emeritus Kim Seong-kon about Korean journalist Lee Dong-uk’s book, “The Spy Who Went into the Cold.” It covers the biography of Lieutenant General Kim Chang-ryong, who headed the Korean Counterintelligence Corps under the rule of South Korea’s first president, Syngman Rhee.

The biographer’s version

According to Lee Dong-uk’s account, during Japan’s occupation of Korea, Kim Chang-ryong served in the Japanese military police and worked in the Hailar area near the border between Manchuria and the Soviet Union. The biographer claims that Kim collected information about an underground network of Soviet agents, which helped the Japanese army arrest about 60 people.

After Korea’s liberation in 1945, the book says, Kim returned to his hometown in what is now North Korea. Lee writes that he escaped two death sentences imposed by the communist regime, fled to Seoul, and enrolled in the Korean Military Academy.

According to the biographer’s version, in 1948 Kim became a counterintelligence officer in the Army of the Republic of Korea and played an important role in identifying and arresting communists and their supporters in the military. Lee Dong-uk also believes that the efforts of Syngman Rhee and Kim Chang-ryong prevented South Korea from becoming a communist state.

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Death and assessments of his legacy

Lee Dong-uk claims that Kim Chang-ryong was investigating the misappropriation of U.S. financial aid by several generals and senior officials. According to the book’s author, after this case was exposed, the general was killed by other military officers in 1956.

The column notes that after the general’s death, left-wing political activists called him a collaborator with Japan. At the same time, Lee Dong-uk considers such assessments unfair and describes Kim as a committed anti-communist.

The column’s author writes that the book portrays postwar Korea through the confrontation between communism and anti-communism. He cites Lee Dong-uk’s assessment that blind faith and blind hatred prevailed in Korean society after liberation, and draws a parallel with the current ideological divide in South Korea.