Choe Dong-o

Choe Dong-o (崔東旿, 1892 – 1963) was an independence activist during the Japanese colonial period and a politician of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Life

Choe was born on June 22, 1892, into a devout Cheondoist family in Yongun-ri, Wolhwa-myeon, Uiju-gun, Pyeongan-bukdo. He was of the Haeju Choe clan, also known as Choe Hak-won (崔學源), and his art name was Uisan (義山). At that time, Uiju was a region where repression was weaker after the failure of the Donghak Peasant Revolution, and Son Byong-hi, the third patriarch of the religion, Uiam, had focused his missionary efforts there. Even during the Japanese colonial period, the religion's membership was maintained at more than twice that of the south, and this is also why Cheondoists are the largest group among religious believers in North Korea today. Choe Dong-o was a disciple who received direct instruction from Son Byong-hi. He joined Donghak in 1903, graduated from the Advanced Normal Course and the Law Course of the Cheondoist Central Jonghak Institute, and was appointed as a preacher (gangdosa). He worked as a core member of the Uiju Great Diocese and then took a leading role in the March 1st Movement. He was arrested by the Japanese police, imprisoned, and later released.

As domestic activities became difficult due to Japanese surveillance and repression, in October 1919 he fled to Shanghai, China, dispatched by the Cheondo religion. In November, he became a counselor of the Interior Department of the Provisional Government and a domestic investigator, and in March 1920 he was promoted to director of the Local Affairs Bureau of the Interior Department, seeking to connect with Cheondoist forces inside the country. He also established Cheondoist Jongri-won (religious offices) in Shanghai and Beijing, gathered Cheondoists who had come into exile, stressed unity and solidarity, and promoted national consciousness. At this time, he worked together with Ryu Dong-yeol, a fierce independence army commander who was also a Cheondoist and later became his in-law.

Choe sought to create a new, integrated and authoritative independence movement organization from the standpoint of the Creation faction, but failed to achieve his aim and moved to the Northeast region. In 1924, in Manchuria, he engaged in anti-Japanese activities with Kim Dong-sam, Hyeon Ik-cheol, Kim I-dae, Kim Won-sik, and others in the Justice Society (Jeonguibu), an independence movement group in Manchuria. In early 1925, he established the Hwaseong Academy under the Justice Society and served as its director.

In 1929, he served as foreign affairs committee chairman of the National Society (Gukminbu), an incomplete merger of the Justice Society, the New People's Society, and the Chamui Society, and then as international affairs department head of the , which was dedicated to independence movement work after organizational restructuring. On July 2, 1931, when the Manbosan Incident, which the Japanese had fabricated through a Sino-Korean divide-and-rule scheme, occurred, Choe organized the Jilin Korean Overseas Manbosan Incident Investigation Society (吉林韓僑萬寶山事件討究會) and directed the investigation of the facts and negotiations with Chinese officials and citizens.