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later, the majority was communists and the rest were members of Yo’s group.
12
The news that
US forces but not Soviet ones would occupy South Korea reached Seoul only in the last week of
August. This prompted the CPKI to make a frenzy effort to set up a new Korean government. On
September 6, three days before US forces arrived in Seoul, the CPKI declared the formation of
Korean People’s Republic (KPR) completed with a roster of Central Committee’s members.
Forty-two out of 55 names on the list were associated with the Left; the remaining were
prominent nationalists.
13
The latter, most of whom were still out of the country, were not
consulted and it was not clear whether they would agree to join the KPR. Even if the list were an
honest demonstration of “generosity” on the part of the Left towards the Right rather than a
gesture to impress the Americans, it was only a unilateral act but not a result of compromise.
On August 24, 1945, nine days after Japan had surrendered, Soviet troops arrived in
Pyongyang with a detachment of Korean guerrillas led by Kim Ilsung (Cumings 121). Kim had
been fighting the Japanese since the 1930s as a leader of a small guerrilla band first in China then
in the Soviet Far East (Suh 314-5). After entering North Korea, Kim began to build up his power
base in the North under Soviet aegis, ignoring the scramble for power in Seoul at the time.
Arriving in Seoul two weeks after the Soviets had entered Pyongyang, General Hodge,
the US commander, recognized neither the KPR nor any Korean political groups. Hodge set up a
Military Government (MG) run by US officials but advised by former Japanese officials and
rightwing Korean politicians (Jun 137-144). The MG later accepted the KPR only as a political
party but not as a government; it also ordered the dismantling of all PCs. The MG viewed the
12
Many of these communists had tried hastily a week earlier to resurrect the Korean Communist Party (KCP) set up
in 1925. They and many of Yo’s group were to be incorporated into a more cohesive KCP led by Pak Honyong, an
underground veteran communist, when he returned to Seoul days later (Cumings 79-80).
13
The “left” in South Korea consisted of several groups, from radical communists to left-center moderates. The
“right” was also similarly heterogeneous. Politicians were bonded together not only by ideology but also by family
and other ties (Meade 56; Merrill 151).
Convention