Kim Chi-seop

Kim Chi-seop (金祉燮, July 21, 1884 – February 20, 1928) was a Korean independence activist who was a member of the Euijeoldan and attempted to throw a bomb at the Japanese Imperial Palace. His pen name was Chugang (秋岡), and he was born in Andong (安東), North Gyeongsang Province.

Early life

He served as a teacher at Sangju Elementary School, and then as a clerk and interpreter at the Geumsan District Court, and worked at the Sangju branch office of the law office of Kim Eung-seop (金應燮), a member of the Pungsan Kim clan.

Independence activities

After the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty, he resigned and returned home, where he discussed independence activities with Kim Won-bong, Kwak Jae-gi, Kim Si-hyeon, and others. During the March 1st Movement of 1919, he took part in the independence movement and was active in it, and in 1920 he fled to China. In 1922 he joined the Euijeoldan, and carried out independence activities in Shanghai, Beijing, and other places. In 1923, he tried to bring 36 bombs from Shanghai into Seoul via Andong in order to destroy Japanese facilities in Korea, but the plan was discovered by the Japanese through the activities of a Japanese spy named Hwang Ok (黃鈺), three of his comrades were arrested, and he fled to Shanghai with Kim Won-bong, Jang Gun-sang, and others. Afterward, upon hearing of the massacre of Koreans during the Great Kanto earthquake on September 1, he intended to assassinate Japanese high officials attending the Imperial Diet that was to be held in Tokyo in 1924. Carrying three bombs, he left Shanghai on December 20, 1923, and arrived in Fukuoka on the 31st. It is said that he received help from Kobayashi Kan'ichi (小林貫一).¹ He infiltrated Tokyo on January 3, 1924, but after reading a newspaper article reporting that the Imperial Diet had been postponed indefinitely, he changed his plan and decided to throw three bombs at the Nijubashi (二重橋) of the Japanese Imperial Palace. On January 5, he attempted to enter the palace grounds and threw the bombs, but all three failed to explode, and he was arrested on the spot.¹

His defense attorney Fuse Tatsuji argued that he was "a person who represented the will of the entire Korean people" and that, since the bombs failed to detonate, he should be found not guilty as an impossible offender. However, the prosecution demanded the death penalty, and the court sentenced him to life imprisonment. He served his sentence at Ichigaya Prison (市谷刑務所) and was then transferred to Chiba Prison (千葉刑務所). In 1927 his sentence was commuted to 20 years of imprisonment, but on February 20, 1928, he died in prison of a cerebral hemorrhage.