Early life Pak was born to a
yangban family of the
Yeonghae Park lineage in
Sinyang-myeon,
Yesan County,
South Chungcheong Province. However, he was the illegitimate son of a
concubine. In 1919, he graduated from
Kyŏngsŏng Ordinary High School, now
Kyunggi High School. In March 1919, he was involved in the
March First Movement and later
independence movements.
Political activities In 1921, he joined the
Shanghai branch of the
Communist Party of Korea,
Irkutsk faction. At this time, he was secretary of the Korean Communist Youth League. In January 1922, he participated in the
Comintern Far East People's Representative Council in
Moscow. Pak Hon-yong was arrested in Korea in April 1922 and was charged with being a Communist Party organizer. He was released in 1924 and became active as a reporter for the newspapers
The Dong-A Ilbo and
The Chosun Ilbo under the names Ijong () and Ichun ().
Underground On 18 April 1925, Pak Hon-yong became one of the founders of the Communist Party of Korea. From this point until the end of World War II, his activities were clandestine. In 1926, Pak appeared in court. During the trial, he feigned insanity and ate
feces, with the result that he was acquitted in November of that year. Afterwards, he was confined to his home due to his supposed ill-health, but in December he escaped by way of
Manchuria to reach the
Soviet Union. It was only then that the Japanese realized that he was feigning madness. In the Soviet Union, he was educated in the
International Lenin School, returning home in 1940. Back in Korea, he was active in the resistance to Japanese rule.
After World War II in 1946 Late in August 1945, the Communist Party of Korea () was re-established, having been officially disbanded in 1928, and Pak became its secretary. Pak was the most prominent Communist in Korea at the time. On 5 January 1946, as its representative, he announced at a foreign and domestic press conference that, supporting the decision of the Moscow conference of great powers (UK, US, Soviet Union), Korea was now in the process of a "democratic revolution". After the December 1945
Moscow Conference, the Communist Party of Korea was oppressed by United States Army Military Government. In September 1946, he was instrumental in organizing a
general strike, which at its peak involved more than a quarter of a million workers. In December 1946, he organized the
Workers Party of South Korea known as (), and became one of two vice chairmen.
North–South negotiations and life in North Korea ,
Anastas Mikoyan,
Andrei Gromyko, Pak Hon-yong and
Hong Myong-hui passing before the guard of honor at the Yaroslav Station. Moscow, March 1949 In April 1948, Pak visited North Korea for negotiations, along with
Kim Ku and
Kim Kyu-sik. In May 1948, the negotiations ended, and he remained in the North. In September 1948, while keeping his role as Secretary of the Workers' Party of South Korea, he became Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the newly established North Korean state.
Korean War According to secret documents of the former Soviet Union released in succession until 2002, Kim Il-sung and Pak always acted together until the detailed plans of the war were finally decided. They were also on hand during their visit to Moscow from 30 March to 25 April 1950, meeting
Stalin and receiving written instructions of detailed war plans.
Arrest and death Pak was arrested on 3 August 1953 in a
purge of the former members of the Workers' Party of South Korea orchestrated by Kim Il-sung. According to the
CIA: == Works ==