Kim Chang-ryong - South Korea and The Korean War

South Korea and The Korean War

Kim Chang-Ryong arrived in Seoul in May 1946, joined several different corps of the ROKA (Republic of Korea Army) and was eventually assigned to G-2 (intelligence). After seeing his homeland embrace Communism, for which he had by then developed a strong hatred, Kim promised himself he would do everything to prevent South Korea from following the same path. Besides, he would soon find another enemy to fight, this time among his very colleagues : corruption. Kim Chang-Ryong earned President Syngman Rhee's trust with the arrests of Kim Sam-Yong and Lee Joo-Ha, two key members of the South Korean Labor Party (Nam-Ro-Dang). Rhee, aware that complete control over the army was the only possible way to maintain his regime, saw Kim Chang-Ryong as the ideal right hand man, an efficient young officer who could "clean up the mess in the army" and get rid of anyone capable of threatening Rhee's position (Kim himself posed no threat, his serving with the Japanese ensuring he would never be supported by the people). Armed with this favored connection to the country's leader, Kim perhaps became somewhat reckless in his investigations and obviously made serious enemies among army officers, many of whom were indeed involved in corruption business or subversive activities. Kim Chang-Ryong, now a superior officer, formed with the support of US Army officials the US CIC or Counter-intelligence Corps, which was responsible for arresting and interrogating thousands of assumed North Korean spies. It is said that in reference to his infamous relentlessness, Gen. Douglas MacArthur nicknamed him "Kim The Snake". By July 1949, the facts seem to be, a little less than 5,000 soldiers and officers of the ROKA had been arrested and interrogated.