Hong Bom-do

(also Hong Pom-do). Born 1868 near Pyongyang; died 1943 in Kzyl-Orda, Kazakh SSR. Korean patriot; an initiator of armed resistance to the Japanese invaders and a participant in the Civil War in the Soviet Far East (1918–22).

The son of a poor peasant, Hong Bom-do was for many years a hunter in the mountains of Hamgyong-pukto Province. In 1907, in the Kapsan region, he organized a partisan detachment made up of hunters, which was called the Soldiers of the Righteous Cause (Uibyong). He was a prominent organizer of the Army of Independence (Tongnip Kun), which began fighting the Japanese colonialists in Manchuria in 1919 and won a major victory over them near Ponogol’ in 1920. In 1921 partisans led by Hong Bom-do began fighting in the Soviet Primor’e area for the victory of Soviet power. After the Civil War ended, Hong Bom-do remained in the Soviet Union, where he took part in public affairs.