Communism in Korea - Factional Conflict

Factional Conflict

At the time there were four separate tendencies or factions in the Workers Party of North Korea.

• The Soviet Koreans, led by Alexei Ivanovich Hegay, were made up of waves of ethnic Koreans who were born or raised in Russia after their families moved there starting in the 1870s. Some of them had returned to Korea covertly as Communist operatives in the twenties and thirties but most were members of the Red Army or civilians who were stationed in North Korea following World War II. This grouping had played an important role in building up the party structure of the early Communist Party in Pyongyang directly after the Second World War.

• The Domestic fraction, were Korean Communists who never left the country but engaged in the independence army. Prominent members of this fraction were O Ki-sop, Chong Tal-hyon, Yi Chu-ha, Chu Nyong-ha (Vice Chairman of the party), Kim Yong-bom, Pak Chong-ae, Chang Shi-u and Yi Chu-yon. This grouping was politically tied to the old leadership of the Communist Party of Korea based in Seoul, at this point represented by the Workers Party of South Korea led by Pak Hon-yong.

• The Yanan faction, led first by Mu Chong and then by Kim Tu-bong and Choe Chang-ik, were those Korean exiles who had lived in China's Shaanxi province and joined the Communist Party of China whose regional headquarters were at Yanan. They had formed their own party, the North-Chinese League for the Independence of Korea, and when they returned to North Korea from exile they formed the New People's Party. Many members of the Yanan faction had fought in the Chinese 8th and New 4th Armies and thus had close relations with Mao Zedong.

• The Guerrilla faction, led by Kim Il-sung, was made up of former Korean guerillas who had been active in Manchuria. Many in this group ended up fleeing Manchuria, as their armed resistance was suppressed, and moved to the Soviet Union where many of them, including Kim, were drafted into the Red Army.

The factions were represented proportionately in the leading bodies of the WPNK. In the first politburo of the party the Soviet Korean fraction had three members, the Yanan fraction had six, the domestic fraction had two and the guerrilla fraction had two. The guerrilla faction was actually the smallest of the fractions in the Central Committee but they had the advantage of having Kim Il-sung, who led the North Korean government and was highly influential within the party. Moreover, Kim Il-Sung was backed by the Soviet Union.