Chŏng Sangjin (; May 5, 1918 – June 15, 2013) was a Soviet poet, bureaucrat, academic, and military officer. He was the only ethnic Korean among 60 Soviet paratroopers that first liberated parts of Korea under Japanese rule during World War II. He was also known by his Russian name Yuri Danilovich Ten () or the Korean nickname derived from "Yuri", Ryul (). His name is also Cyrillized as Ten San Din ().
He stayed in North Korea on orders from the Soviet government and spent 13 years total there, serving in various roles in the North Korean government and at Kim Il Sung University. However, after Soviet-aligned Koreans were purged from the North Korean government, he returned to the Soviet Union. He then became a critic of North Korea and worked as a reporter, writer, and Korean reunification activist.
He died in Moscow on June 15, 2013, at the age of 95.
Early life Chŏng was born in the Korean enclave Sinhanch'on in Vladivostok, Primorskaya Oblast, Russian Soviet Republic on May 5, 1918.
His father, Chŏng Ch'imun (), was originally from Myongchon County, North Hamgyong Province, Joseon, but went in exile to Russia after the Japanese occupation of Korea. Chŏng's father was an ardent nationalist and a vocal advocate for the liberation of Korea, which left an impression on Chŏng.
Chŏng's mother was illiterate and remained so even until the 1950s. Chŏng's father was well-versed in Chinese literature. By age five, Chŏng was learning to read and write from his father.
At the time, Vladivostok was a hub for Soviet Koreans (who are also called Koryo-saram). As was common with Korean culture during that time, education was valued extremely highly. A Russian observer remarked that the Koreans of Vladivostok insisted on rigorous schooling, despite their poverty. Chŏng initially enrolled in a Russian-language school, but switched to a Korean-language school at the insistence of his father.
In 1936, he studied literature at the Wŏndong Korean College of Education in Vladivostok (). He later claimed that by this point, he was a devoted communist.
Deportation to Kazakhstan
In fall 1937, his studies were interrupted when he and many Koreans in the Soviet Union were forcibly deported to Kazakhstan. While on the month-long train journey, he and his friends huddled together to avoid freezing to death, and he recited poetry to them to comfort them. Tens of thousands of Koreans died on the journey. After disembarking from the train, he witnessed several Kazakh women handing out bread from the backs of donkeys. In an August 2007 interview, Chŏng said of this experience:
In October 1938, his father was arrested and executed by the Soviet government. Chŏng made a point of continuing in the Korean independence movement in his father's stead, and became disillusioned with both communism and Joseph Stalin. In total, around 2,800 Korean intellectuals were executed without trial. The location of his father's grave remains unknown .
His college reopened in Kazakhstan, and he graduated from it in 1940. Around this time, he befriended Cho Ki-chon, who lectured on world literature at the college. Later, Cho became a landmark poet in the North Korean literary canon.
Career Chŏng then taught literature at a secondary school in Kyzylorda. In 1941, he submitted his first poem to the Lenin Kichi, the Koryo-saram newspaper that he would later work for full-time in 1961. He continued submitting essays, translations, and literary criticism to the Kichi even into the late 2000s.
World War II In 1941, after Japan entered World War II, Chŏng eagerly made seven attempts to enlist in the Soviet Army and see active combat, but was refused due to restrictions on Koreans joining the military. In 1942, he became a member of the Communist Party. He was finally called to combat in March 1945, during rising tensions between Japan and the Soviet Union. His mother reportedly said during his departure "Your father always regretted not being able to fight the Japanese, now you're going. I can't stand in your way."
He was sent to Vladivostok on Russky Island, as reconnaissance for the marine corps of the Soviet Pacific Fleet under the command of Viktor Leonov. On August 9, 1945, he rejoiced when he heard the Soviet declaration of war on Japan, as he saw it as a key opportunity to liberate Korea.
On August 11, he and 60 other paratroopers reportedly participated in the first Soviet military action in Korea during World War II: the liberation of Unggi County (later renamed Sŏnbong, literally "Vanguard", due to its role as the first liberated area). He was the only ethnic Korean in that group, which he found depressing, as it was largely a group of foreigners who was liberating his homeland. He had the rank of sergeant at the time, and was often called Yura () by his fellow Russians.
The liberation of Unggi was bloodless, but civilians still reportedly ran in fear of the Soviet troops. Chŏng stopped them, revealed that he was Korean, and announced their liberation. He and the civilians shed tears of joy. He later recalled this incident in a 1946 poem entitled Unggi Harbor! My Footsteps Drenched with Tears.
Decades later, Kim Il Sung claimed that he and the Korean People's Army (KPA) had liberated Unggi instead of the Soviets. Chŏng said of this claim in 2007:
They then fought in the Seishin Operation against the Japanese, who had retreated from Manchuria into Chongjin. Despite allegedly being severely outnumbered and losing 29 fighters, they won on August 18.
Fighting lasted around 24 days, until the September 2 surrender of Japan.
Activities in North Korea Chŏng was initially recalled to Vladivostok, but a week later was sent to Soviet-occupied Wonsan under orders from Moscow. In October 1945, he became deputy director of education of the city. Amongst his fellow Koreans, he went by the nickname "Ryul", which was derived from his Russian nickname "Yura".
On September 18, 1945, he was informed by command that he was to meet Kim Il Sung for the first time on the next day. Chŏng was reportedly excited to meet Kim, expecting him to be a graying and physically imposing rebel, befitting his reputation as a fierce guerilla. Chŏng was surprised to find Kim youthful, fresh-faced, and thin. Kim arrived around 8 am by the Soviet boat Pugachev, accompanied by 60 members of the KPA. Chŏng asked Kim where he and the fighters had been during the bloodshed, and Kim gave a muted response. Chŏng then suspected that the Soviet government had intentionally held Kim back.
In 1946, Chŏng and several others published a book of poetry inspired by the liberation of Korea called Ŭnghyang. The book, particularly due to one of its poems Dawn Map, was accused of being overly decadent and was met with censorship from Pyongyang. The author of Dawn Map then defected to the South.
In July 1946, he was appointed deputy director of the Ministry of Education in South Hamgyong Province. Here, he met fellow author Han Sorya. Chŏng had previously read Han's writing, in which Han heaped praise upon Kim Il Sung, but in person he allegedly found Han to not know much about Kim on a personal level. But after these articles caught the eye of Kim, they quickly elevated Han to a position of prominence in the North Korean literary scene.
In spring 1947, he became Vice Chairman of the North Korean Federation of Literature and Arts. Around this time, he also met Pak Chang-ok, who had actually been two years above him back in university. He also observed and was impressed by Kim Ku and Hong Myong-hui at the North–South conference of April 1948. Chŏng admired Hong's work and character greatly, and often sought out his advice after he remained in North Korea. In summer 1948, Chŏng became head of the Department of Russian Languages and Literature at Kim Il Sung University.
Between September 2, 1948, and September 9, 1953, he served in the newly formed North Korea (DPRK) as the first Second Vice Minister of the . He later served as First Vice Minister between December 1, 1953, and April 12, 1954, and again between March 24, 1955, and September 2, 1955. He often assisted Ho Jong-suk with her work, as she was frequently ill around this time. He also occasionally met with Kim Il Sung.
On June 25, 1950, Chŏng heard Kim Il Sung's announcement of the invasion of South Korea on the radio. He was personally surprised by the announcement, and believed Kim's claim that the South had invaded the North first. At the time, he was head of artillery supply in the Korean People's Army. Shortly afterwards, he heard from friends within the North Korean government that, after receiving reluctant approval from the Soviet government, Kim had manufactured a reason to invade the South.
After the July 1953 armistice was signed, Chŏng spent two weeks in Seoul as the head of the North Korean effort to exchange prisoners of war. In August 1955, in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the liberation of Korea, he visited the Soviet Union as part of a cultural delegation composed of 18 North Korean artists and toured various cities, including Moscow, Leningrad, Tashkent, Almaty, and Novosibirsk.
Purge from North Korea Upon his return from the cultural tour in September 1955, Chŏng learned via a public announcement that he and several other Soviet Koreans were to be stripped of their posts. He was then appointed to the relatively unimportant role of Director of the Science Library of the DPRK Academy of Sciences.
After the March 5, 1953 death of Joseph Stalin, Kim increased his opposition of Soviet influence in North Korea. Tensions between the pro-Kim and pro-Soviet factions grew, culminating in the failed 1957 August Faction Incident, in which Soviet- and Chinese-aligned Koreans tried to purge Kim Il Sung. Chŏng was allegedly among Kim's most distrusted Soviet Koreans around this time. He had never abandoned his Soviet citizenship, partly out of fear that he too could one day be purged. His mother came to visit him from Kazakhstan; she urged him to return to Kazakhstan where his family was.
On October 22, 1955, Chŏng, Pak, and several others appeared before the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea, where they were chastised by Kim Il Sung as lacking juche: "self-reliance". According to Bae Jin-yeong of the Monthly Chosun, this was the first usage of the term juche in North Korea, which later became the name of the state ideology.
In October 1957, after receiving permission from Kim Il Sung to leave the country, Chŏng and thirteen Soviet Koreans left North Korea and returned to the Soviet Union. He tried to say goodbye to Ho Jong-suk, whom he had considered a good friend, but she coldly dismissed him. In 2007, he said he would have liked to meet her again above anyone else from his time in North Korea. After Chŏng and the others left North Korea, reprisals against Soviet Koreans reportedly greatly slowed. Chŏng later said of his departure:
Later life and death After returning, Chŏng first went to Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, where he studied journalism for four years at a Soviet government school. He then returned to Kazakhstan, where he worked in the editorial department of the Lenin Kichi newspaper between 1961 and late 1991. He wrote an editorial in the December 19, 1990, final edition of the Kichi before it changed its name to Koryo Ilbo in 1991. While he had expected the Soviet Union to one day collapse beginning in the late 1930s, he had not wanted it to happen. However, upon observing how the Kazakhs relished their newfound independence after its collapse, he changed his mind.