Hwang Jang-yop: Difference between revisions

Hwang Jang-yop (born 17 February, 1923, Kangdong, South Pyongan) is a former major politician in North Korea who defected to South Korea in 1997, making him the highest-ranking defector from the isolated state. He graduated from the Pyongyang Commercial School in 1941, and then went to Tokyo in 1942 to attend Chuo University's law school; however, he quit two years later and returned to Pyongyang, where he taught mathematics at his alma mater. He joined the Workers Party of North Korea in 1946, soon after its founding; from 1949 to 1953, he was sent to study at Russia's Moscow University, where he met his wife Pak Sung-ok. Upon his return to North Korea, he became head lecturer in philosophy at Kim Il-sung University. He would later ascend to the presidency of that university in April 1965. In 1972, he became Chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly, a position which he would hold for 11 years.^[1] In 1983, however, he was removed from the Assembly and his standing deteriorated; though he had been Kim Jong-Il's teacher at Kim Il-sung University, Kim now spoke to him only to criticize him, specifically admonishing him for taking too close an interest in China's capitalist reforms.^[2]

Hwang defected on the way back from a February 1997 trip to Tokyo by walking into the South Korean embassy in Beijing along with his aide Kim Duk Hong, the president of a North Korean trading firm in Beijing. Pyongyang immediately threatened retaliation, while Beijing police sealed off the South Korean embassy.^[3] Three days later, North Korean defector Ri Han-yong, the nephew of Kim Jong-il and his mistress Song Hye-rim, was shot outside of his Bundang, Gyeonggi-do home by unknown assailants widely suspected to be North Korean Special Forces agents; South Korean prime minister Lee Soo Sung described the attack as retaliation for Hwang's defection.^[4] A few days later, Kim Jong-il was quoted on Radio Pyongyang as saying, "Cowards, leave if you want to. We will defend the red flag of revolution to the end", a message seen as marking acceptance of Hwang's defection.^[5]

Chinese authorities eventually permitted Hwang to depart for South Korea via the Philippines several weeks later.^[6] Since his defection his wife has supposedly committed suicide and his daughter allegedly died by falling off a truck; his other children, a daughter and a son, as well his grandchildren, are thought to have been sent to labour camps.^[2] After his arrival in the South, he became a harsh critic of North Korea, publishing over 12 books and treatises, many of which accused Kim Jong-il of "betraying juche and building feudalism instead of socialism", and used his position as chairman of the Unification Policy Research Institute to spread his message. However, under the Sunshine Policy of president Kim Dae-jung, who took office in 1998, Hwang found himself increasingly marginalised; in November 2000, he was removed from the chairmanship of the Unification Policy Research Institute, leading him to complain that the South Korean government wanted him to stay quiet so as not to upset the North.^[6] He has reportedly received hundreds of death threats from the North.^{[citation needed]}

Hwang contributes to the Daily NK, a pro-democracy online newspaper set up by North Korean exiles in South Korea. ^[7]

• A collection of North Korean press releases about Hwang Jang-yop
• "Pair of North Korean Defectors Find They Are Now Being Muted in Seoul", The Wall Street Journal, May 8, 2002
• North Korea From The Inside Out, The Washington Post, June 1998
• Daily NK, a pro-democracy online newspaper set up by North Korean exiles in South Korea

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