Lee Myomuk (李卯默, Japanese name: 李宮卯默 Rinomiya Bomoku; 9 December 1902 – 27 February 1957) was an educator during the [[Japanese rule of Korea]] who belonged to the Jeonju Yi clan and was from Jungwha County, South Pyongan Province. During the political upheaval after liberation, he helped found the
Born~Died Dec 9, 1902 ~ Feb 27, 1957Last edited Oct 15, 2026, 2:51 PM
Details
Born ~ Died
Dec 9, 1902 ~ Feb 27, 1957
Name
이묘묵
Romanization
Lee Myomuk
Born
9 December 1902, Sangwon-myeon, Jungwha County, South Pyongan Province
Died
27 February 1957
Sex
Male
Nationality
South Korea
Career
Co-founder of the Korean Democratic Party, Korean secretary to US Army commander John R. Hodge, diplomat, politician
Lee Myomuk (李卯默, Japanese name: 李宮卯默 Rinomiya Bomoku; 9 December 1902 – 27 February 19571) was an educator during the Japanese rule of Korea who belonged to the Jeonju Yi clan and was from Sangwon-myeon, Jungwha County, South Pyongan Province. During the political upheaval after liberation, he helped found the Korean Democratic Party and served as Korean secretary to US Army Lieutenant General John R. Hodge, the commander of the US Army Military Government in Korea. After the establishment of South Korea, he worked as a diplomat and politician.
He received a master's degree from Syracuse University, then entered the graduate school of Harvard University, completing coursework there in 1930. In 1931 he received a doctorate in philosophy from Boston University. He remained in the United States until 1934, teaching history at Syracuse University. After returning home, he was elected vice president of the Korean branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1936. After he returned to Korea in the mid-1930s, he served as a professor at Yonhui Professional School, and in 1944 he concurrently held the posts of library director and dean of students at the school. After liberation, he founded an English-language newspaper and served as its first president, and he also took up a position on the board of trustees of Yonhui University.
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In the late 1930s he was implicated in the Suyang Dongwuhoe incident and arrested. After submitting a letter of conversion (tenkō), he received a suspension of prosecution in the Suyang Dongwuhoe case.2 In the final period of Japanese rule, he actively took part in a number of pro-Japanese organizations, including the Nokgi Federation and Taiwasuku. As president of Yonhui Professional School, he participated in organizations formed to support the wartime system, such as the Korean League for the Mobilization of National Spirit, the Korean League for the Mobilization of National Strength, and the Joseon Imjeon Bogukdan. He also served as an initiator of the Hwangdo Hakhoe, organized by Yi Kwang-su under the banner of promoting the ideology of the Imperial Way.
US Army Military Government period
When Japan was defeated in the Pacific War in 1945 and the US Army Military Government began, he was recruited as interpreter for John R. Hodge, commander of the US XXIV Corps. From this point on, he worked as a powerful figure behind the scenes of the military government. Beyond his visible activities, such as serving as the representative of South Pyongan Province in the Emergency National Assembly, which later developed into the South Korean Interim Legislative Assembly, and then leading the launch of the Interim Legislative Assembly, he also handled key transitional affairs in a largely behind-the-scenes capacity, including forcing Yun Chi-young to step down as Syngman Rhee's secretary-general. Meanwhile, he also took part in the founding of the Korean Democratic Party, which was established on 16 September.
On 10 September 1945, Cho Byeong-ok, Yun Posun, and others representing the Korean Democratic Party met with the US military governor and others, arguing that the Korean People's Republic had been organized by "Korean groups that had collaborated with Japan," and that Lyuh Woon-hyung was "a politician of pro-Japanese collaboration well known to Koreans." That very day, Lee Myomuk became Hodge's personal interpreter. At Myeongwolgwan, he told US military government officials that Lyuh Woon-hyung and An Jae-hong were well-known pro-Japanese figures and that the People's Republic had a communist tendency, and this statement earned him considerable trust from the military government.3 Afterwards, Lee Myomuk also served as the Korean secretary to John R. Hodge, commander of the military government.
There were rumors that Lee Myomuk's influence was connected to the US military government and Hodge's negative view of the Lyuh Woon-hyung faction of the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence, to the fact that the forceful calls for a coalition of left and right were ignored, leading ultimately to the establishment of a separate government, and to the rise of Cho Byeong-ok, Chang Taek-sang, and Choi Gyeong-jin within the police; he thus played a significant role during this period.4
On 19 September, together with Choi Gyu-nam, Jo Ui-seol, Kim Yun-gyeong, and others, he met with the director of the financial bureau of the US military government and strongly opposed the plan to use Yonhui Professional School as a US Army hospital or a school for training judges. He negotiated for the school to be taken over immediately so that Yonhui School could resume normal operations.5 In October 1945, when Syngman Rhee returned to Korea, he frequently visited Dongam Villa.
When the Korean Basketball Association was revived in 1945, Lee Myomuk was elected its first president. In 1947 he served as vice chairman of the Yonhui University Support Association, executive director of the Heunghan Foundation, and an Olympic committee member of the Korean Sport Council, and the following year he served as the first president of the Seoul Hunting Association and vice chairman of the International Affairs Research Society, among other posts.
On 29 June 1946 he was appointed as a consultative member of the National Unification Headquarters.
Shortly before the establishment of a separate government
As the establishment of a separate government became unavoidable, he supported the establishment of the separate government. In June 1948, rumors arose that he was organizing a second party, but he himself denied this fact.6
First Republic
Around the time when the First Republic was established alone in the US military government area, he held positions including vice chairman of the Yonhui University Support Association, executive director of the Heunghan Foundation, Olympic committee member of the Korean Sport Council, first president of the Seoul Hunting Association, vice chairman of the International Affairs Research Society, and president of the Korea Basketball Association.
In 1949 he served as chairman of the UN Korea Association and as a secretary of the UN Korea Commission. On 20 August he was elected secretary-general of the Committee for the Strengthening of the Nationalist Camp,7 and from 1951 he was dispatched to London as Minister Plenipotentiary and Ambassador Extraordinary to the United Kingdom. In 1951 he attended the 6th session of the United Nations General Assembly held in Paris, France, as a member of the Korean delegation together with Chang Myon (leader), Im Byung-jik, Chang Taek-sang, Chun Kyu-hong, and An Yeon-saeng.8 In 1952 he paid respects at the funeral of King George VI of the United Kingdom as a special envoy of the President of South Korea. In May 1953 he attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II as a Korean representative together with Shin Ik-hee and others,9 and, together with the Korean delegation headed by Shin Ik-hee, the Speaker of the National Assembly, he achieved notable diplomatic results with Prime Minister Churchill and the heads of state of 16 participating countries.
In early June 1949 he made efforts to secure the release of Choe Neung-jin, who had been imprisoned, but these efforts failed. While staying in the United Kingdom and serving as ambassador to the United Kingdom and concurrently minister to Scandinavia, he was involved in a minor collision with a taxi in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 8 February 1957, while he and his wife were traveling somewhere; the accident resulted only in minor injuries. He died in the United Kingdom while serving as minister to the UK.
Editorial Committee of the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators (27 December 2004). 《일제협력단체사전 - 국내 중앙편》 [Dictionary of Collaborationist Organizations under Japanese Rule – Domestic Central Edition]. Seoul: Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities. pp. 266, 301, 347, 374, 376, 389. ISBN 89-953307-2-4.
Footnotes
Footnotes
"李卯默 주영공사 별세" [Ambassador to the UK Lee Myomuk Passes Away]. Chosun Ilbo. 1 March 1957. p. 1. ↩
Jeong Byeong-jun, 《우남 이승만 연구》 [Study of Syngman Rhee] (Yeoksa Bipyeongsa, 2005), p. 388 ↩
Kang Jun-man (13 November 2006). 《한국현대사산책 1940년대편 1》 [Strolls through Modern Korean History: 1940s Edition 1]. Seoul: Inmul gwa Sasang Sa. pp. 81–83. ISBN 89-5906-044-5. ↩
Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities (1 March 1994). "최경진 - 고문 출신의 엘리트 친일경찰 (안소영)" [Choi Gyeong-jin – An Elite Pro-Japanese Police Officer from a Background of Torture (Ahn So-young)]. 《청산하지 못한 역사 3》 [History Not Yet Settled 3]. Seoul: Cheongnyeonsa. ISBN 978-89-7278-314-5. ↩
《원한경의 삶과 교육사상(연세총서 3)》 [The Life and Educational Thought of Horace Underwood (Yonsei Series 3)] (Son In-su; Yonsei University Press, 2009), p. 112 ↩
《한국현대민족운동연구 2(역비한국학연구총서 13)》 [Studies in Modern Korean National Movements 2 (Yeokbi Korean Studies Series 13)] (Seo Jung-seok; Yeoksa Bipyeongsa, 2008), p. 302 ↩
["歷代(역대) 유엔 總會(총회) 韓國(한국) 代表團(대표단)" [Korean Delegations to Past UN General Assemblies]]. Kyunghyang Shinmun. 8 August 1962. ↩
["英女王戴冠式參席 韓國特使一行決定(영 여왕 대관식 참석 한국 특사 일행 결정)" [Korean Special Envoy Delegation Decided to Attend British Queen's Coronation]]. Kyunghyang Shinmun. 21 May 1953. The Korean delegation to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth of Britain, scheduled for 2 June, was as follows: Special Representative and Prime Minister Baek Du-jin; Representative and Speaker of the National Assembly Shin Ik-hee; Representative and Minister to the UK Lee Myomuk; Attaché and National Assembly member Kim Dong-seong (Suwon); Attaché and Second Section Chief of the Budget Bureau of the Planning Office Lee Han-bin (Suwon). In addition, for the British naval review scheduled from 14 to 17 June after the coronation, Navy Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Son Won-il will attend with aide Captain Won Jong-hyeok, and the aforementioned delegation will depart for Britain within the day. ↩
Lee Myomuk (李卯默, Japanese name: 李宮卯默 Rinomiya Bomoku; 9 December 1902 – 27 February 19571) was an educator during the Japanese rule of Korea who belonged to the Jeonju Yi clan and was from Sangwon-myeon, Jungwha County, South Pyongan Province. During the political upheaval after liberation, he helped found the Korean Democratic Party and served as Korean secretary to US Army Lieutenant General John R. Hodge, the commander of the US Army Military Government in Korea. After the establishment of South Korea, he worked as a diplomat and politician.
He received a master's degree from Syracuse University, then entered the graduate school of Harvard University, completing coursework there in 1930. In 1931 he received a doctorate in philosophy from Boston University. He remained in the United States until 1934, teaching history at Syracuse University. After returning home, he was elected vice president of the Korean branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1936. After he returned to Korea in the mid-1930s, he served as a professor at Yonhui Professional School, and in 1944 he concurrently held the posts of library director and dean of students at the school. After liberation, he founded an English-language newspaper and served as its first president, and he also took up a position on the board of trustees of Yonhui University.
In the late 1930s he was implicated in the Suyang Dongwuhoe incident and arrested. After submitting a letter of conversion (tenkō), he received a suspension of prosecution in the Suyang Dongwuhoe case.2 In the final period of Japanese rule, he actively took part in a number of pro-Japanese organizations, including the Nokgi Federation and Taiwasuku. As president of Yonhui Professional School, he participated in organizations formed to support the wartime system, such as the Korean League for the Mobilization of National Spirit, the Korean League for the Mobilization of National Strength, and the Joseon Imjeon Bogukdan. He also served as an initiator of the Hwangdo Hakhoe, organized by Yi Kwang-su under the banner of promoting the ideology of the Imperial Way.
US Army Military Government period
When Japan was defeated in the Pacific War in 1945 and the US Army Military Government began, he was recruited as interpreter for John R. Hodge, commander of the US XXIV Corps. From this point on, he worked as a powerful figure behind the scenes of the military government. Beyond his visible activities, such as serving as the representative of South Pyongan Province in the Emergency National Assembly, which later developed into the South Korean Interim Legislative Assembly, and then leading the launch of the Interim Legislative Assembly, he also handled key transitional affairs in a largely behind-the-scenes capacity, including forcing Yun Chi-young to step down as Syngman Rhee's secretary-general. Meanwhile, he also took part in the founding of the Korean Democratic Party, which was established on 16 September.
On 10 September 1945, Cho Byeong-ok, Yun Posun, and others representing the Korean Democratic Party met with the US military governor and others, arguing that the Korean People's Republic had been organized by "Korean groups that had collaborated with Japan," and that Lyuh Woon-hyung was "a politician of pro-Japanese collaboration well known to Koreans." That very day, Lee Myomuk became Hodge's personal interpreter. At Myeongwolgwan, he told US military government officials that Lyuh Woon-hyung and An Jae-hong were well-known pro-Japanese figures and that the People's Republic had a communist tendency, and this statement earned him considerable trust from the military government.3 Afterwards, Lee Myomuk also served as the Korean secretary to John R. Hodge, commander of the military government.
There were rumors that Lee Myomuk's influence was connected to the US military government and Hodge's negative view of the Lyuh Woon-hyung faction of the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence, to the fact that the forceful calls for a coalition of left and right were ignored, leading ultimately to the establishment of a separate government, and to the rise of Cho Byeong-ok, Chang Taek-sang, and Choi Gyeong-jin within the police; he thus played a significant role during this period.4
On 19 September, together with Choi Gyu-nam, Jo Ui-seol, Kim Yun-gyeong, and others, he met with the director of the financial bureau of the US military government and strongly opposed the plan to use Yonhui Professional School as a US Army hospital or a school for training judges. He negotiated for the school to be taken over immediately so that Yonhui School could resume normal operations.5 In October 1945, when Syngman Rhee returned to Korea, he frequently visited Dongam Villa.
When the Korean Basketball Association was revived in 1945, Lee Myomuk was elected its first president. In 1947 he served as vice chairman of the Yonhui University Support Association, executive director of the Heunghan Foundation, and an Olympic committee member of the Korean Sport Council, and the following year he served as the first president of the Seoul Hunting Association and vice chairman of the International Affairs Research Society, among other posts.
On 29 June 1946 he was appointed as a consultative member of the National Unification Headquarters.
Shortly before the establishment of a separate government
As the establishment of a separate government became unavoidable, he supported the establishment of the separate government. In June 1948, rumors arose that he was organizing a second party, but he himself denied this fact.6
First Republic
Around the time when the First Republic was established alone in the US military government area, he held positions including vice chairman of the Yonhui University Support Association, executive director of the Heunghan Foundation, Olympic committee member of the Korean Sport Council, first president of the Seoul Hunting Association, vice chairman of the International Affairs Research Society, and president of the Korea Basketball Association.
In 1949 he served as chairman of the UN Korea Association and as a secretary of the UN Korea Commission. On 20 August he was elected secretary-general of the Committee for the Strengthening of the Nationalist Camp,7 and from 1951 he was dispatched to London as Minister Plenipotentiary and Ambassador Extraordinary to the United Kingdom. In 1951 he attended the 6th session of the United Nations General Assembly held in Paris, France, as a member of the Korean delegation together with Chang Myon (leader), Im Byung-jik, Chang Taek-sang, Chun Kyu-hong, and An Yeon-saeng.8 In 1952 he paid respects at the funeral of King George VI of the United Kingdom as a special envoy of the President of South Korea. In May 1953 he attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II as a Korean representative together with Shin Ik-hee and others,9 and, together with the Korean delegation headed by Shin Ik-hee, the Speaker of the National Assembly, he achieved notable diplomatic results with Prime Minister Churchill and the heads of state of 16 participating countries.
In early June 1949 he made efforts to secure the release of Choe Neung-jin, who had been imprisoned, but these efforts failed. While staying in the United Kingdom and serving as ambassador to the United Kingdom and concurrently minister to Scandinavia, he was involved in a minor collision with a taxi in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 8 February 1957, while he and his wife were traveling somewhere; the accident resulted only in minor injuries. He died in the United Kingdom while serving as minister to the UK.
Editorial Committee of the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators (27 December 2004). 《일제협력단체사전 - 국내 중앙편》 [Dictionary of Collaborationist Organizations under Japanese Rule – Domestic Central Edition]. Seoul: Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities. pp. 266, 301, 347, 374, 376, 389. ISBN 89-953307-2-4.
Footnotes
Footnotes
"李卯默 주영공사 별세" [Ambassador to the UK Lee Myomuk Passes Away]. Chosun Ilbo. 1 March 1957. p. 1. ↩
Jeong Byeong-jun, 《우남 이승만 연구》 [Study of Syngman Rhee] (Yeoksa Bipyeongsa, 2005), p. 388 ↩
Kang Jun-man (13 November 2006). 《한국현대사산책 1940년대편 1》 [Strolls through Modern Korean History: 1940s Edition 1]. Seoul: Inmul gwa Sasang Sa. pp. 81–83. ISBN 89-5906-044-5. ↩
Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities (1 March 1994). "최경진 - 고문 출신의 엘리트 친일경찰 (안소영)" [Choi Gyeong-jin – An Elite Pro-Japanese Police Officer from a Background of Torture (Ahn So-young)]. 《청산하지 못한 역사 3》 [History Not Yet Settled 3]. Seoul: Cheongnyeonsa. ISBN 978-89-7278-314-5. ↩
《원한경의 삶과 교육사상(연세총서 3)》 [The Life and Educational Thought of Horace Underwood (Yonsei Series 3)] (Son In-su; Yonsei University Press, 2009), p. 112 ↩
《한국현대민족운동연구 2(역비한국학연구총서 13)》 [Studies in Modern Korean National Movements 2 (Yeokbi Korean Studies Series 13)] (Seo Jung-seok; Yeoksa Bipyeongsa, 2008), p. 302 ↩
["歷代(역대) 유엔 總會(총회) 韓國(한국) 代表團(대표단)" [Korean Delegations to Past UN General Assemblies]]. Kyunghyang Shinmun. 8 August 1962. ↩
["英女王戴冠式參席 韓國特使一行決定(영 여왕 대관식 참석 한국 특사 일행 결정)" [Korean Special Envoy Delegation Decided to Attend British Queen's Coronation]]. Kyunghyang Shinmun. 21 May 1953. The Korean delegation to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth of Britain, scheduled for 2 June, was as follows: Special Representative and Prime Minister Baek Du-jin; Representative and Speaker of the National Assembly Shin Ik-hee; Representative and Minister to the UK Lee Myomuk; Attaché and National Assembly member Kim Dong-seong (Suwon); Attaché and Second Section Chief of the Budget Bureau of the Planning Office Lee Han-bin (Suwon). In addition, for the British naval review scheduled from 14 to 17 June after the coronation, Navy Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Son Won-il will attend with aide Captain Won Jong-hyeok, and the aforementioned delegation will depart for Britain within the day. ↩