Kim Hong-il
Korean military officer, diplomat and politician (1898-1980) · South Korea · On the map · Politicians · Died at 81
Kim Hong-il was a Korean independence activist and a general of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Korean War, who later became a diplomat and politician in South Korea.
Kim Hong-il is read about 37 times a day, in 6 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 21 September 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.
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Photos 4
Official portrait of Kim in 1948 as principal of the Korea Military Academy
Kim (centre) with Chiang Kai-shek (left) and Syngman Rhee (right) during the latter's state visit to Taipei in 1953
Kim (right) and other National Assembly members with President of the Bundestag Kai-Uwe von Hassel during a visit to West Germany in 1970Awards
About this person
Born in North Pyongan, he did his early schooling in China and Korea, and had a brief career as a teacher before his connections with the nascent Korean independence movement led to his imprisonment. He fled into exile in China in 1918, and served in the Kuomintang's National Revolutionary Army from 1926 to 1948, following which he moved to the newly independent South Korea to join the Republic of Korea Army. He commanded South Korea's I Corps during the first year of the Korean War, and was then sent to Taipei as South Korea's ambassador to the Republic of China, which by then had retreated to Taiwan. His assignment there ultimately lasted nine years. He returned to South Korea in 1960 following the April Revolution which ended the rule of Syngman Rhee, and served briefly as Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Park Chung Hee junta. He ran for the National Assembly, first unsuccessfully in 1960 and 1963, and was then elected in 1967 and became a major figure in the opposition New Democratic Party.
