Kim Sa-guk

Kim Sa-guk (金思國, 1892 or 9 November 1895 – 8 May 1926) was a Korean independence activist.

Life

In 1907 he lost his father, and he studied Chinese classics at Yujeomsa (楡占寺) on Mount Geumgang. He enrolled in Bosung Higher Common School but dropped out. During the Japanese colonial period he wandered through Manchuria and Siberia, and he returned home before the March 1st Movement of 1919. On 17 March 1919, at the Seoul home of Han Seong-o in Naeja-dong, Gyeongseong, he met with Hong Jin, Lee Gyu-gap, Han Nam-su, and others, and they agreed that a government was necessary for the flame of the March 1st Movement to blaze. Kim Sa-guk argued that a people's assembly was needed to publicly declare the contents of the meeting to the people before convening a council of representatives from the thirteen provinces to form a government, and this was accepted. On 23 April 1919, at Bosingak, propaganda leaflets bearing the Statement of Purpose for the National Assembly and the Provisional Government Charter were scattered, and the establishment of the Hansung Provisional Government was proclaimed.

However, he was imprisoned over the National Assembly Incident and was released in 1920. Afterward he was elected as an executive of the labor assembly, and in 1921 he organized the Seoul Youth Association together with Lee Yeong, Jang Deok-su, Kim Myeong-sik, and others. In 1924 he was active in the Korean Youth Federation, and in December of that year he served as an executive committee member of the Socialist Alliance.

When the Communist Party of Korea was founded on 17 April 1925, Kim Sa-guk's Seoul faction was excluded.

On 8 May 1926 he died of tuberculosis at the headquarters of the Seoul Youth Association. Kim Cheol-su pushed for a joint funeral of the Hwayohoe and the Seoul faction. Under Japanese surveillance, the masses who came to see his final moments were thoroughly blocked.