Grigory Mekler

Mekler was born on 26 June 1909 in , Belarus, Russian Empire. He was born into a large Jewish family. == Military career ==

Mekler originally planned to continue onto graduate studies, but he instead attended the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences at the recommendation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. There, he studied German, English, and Japanese for a year, and received combat training. By the end of 1934, he had the rank of junior lieutenant (). He was then sent as a military translator to the , and deployed to the Russian Far East. There, he participated in the Soviet–Japanese border conflicts. Commander of the Far East Front Kirill Meretskov tasked Mekler with cooperating closely with Kim, and focusing on improving Kim's domestic image and credibility. According to Mekler, Meretskov told him: He eventually recommended that Kim be the new leader; according to Mekler, he later learned that his recommendation was instrumental in the Soviet's decision to move forward with Kim. Mekler arrived shortly afterwards, and met Kim there. Mekler claims to have arranged and witnessed the first meeting between Kim and Cho Man-sik at 6 pm on 30 September 1945. Cho has been described as Kim's rival for leadership in the North, and initially had stronger domestic recognition and support than Kim. Thus, Mekler, Kim, and Khan became a consistent trio. In 1946, Mekler was reassigned to a position in Siberia. Before his departure, Kim asked him for a final piece of advice. He allegedly told Kim the English-language idiom: "Look before you leap". The two then silently hugged, and Mekler departed. == After North Korea ==

Afterwards, contact between him and Kim virtually ceased. The next time Mekler met Kim was in 1950, when Kim visited Moscow. This visit was allegedly when Kim asked Stalin for Soviet approval to invade South Korea and begin the Korean War. From December 1946 to 1948, he managed the repatriation of Japanese prisoners of war in the Siberian Military District. Afterwards, he lectured at the political department in the District until 1949, and at the until he was discharged from the military in 1955. From 1957 to 1982, he worked as a researcher at the Oriental Studies Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. There, he produced books, articles, and lectures about North Korea, including a book on the economy of South Korea (a topic that was otherwise banned at the time). He also received the title Honoured Cultural Worker of the RSFSR during this time. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and until his death, he was extensively interviewed by academics and journalists, and appeared in a number of documentaries about North Korea. His documents and testimonies are now considered valuable evidence for historians of Korea. Some films Mekler appeared in drew the ire of the North Korean Embassy. In 1994, the journalist Leonid Mlechin, who produced a documentary that prominently featured Mekler, reported that he received a call from the embassy with a threatening message: "If it goes on the air, you will end up in a morgue". == Death ==

By 2004, Mekler lived in a "modest" Moscow apartment, and was paralyzed from the waist-down. == Notes ==