Won Yong-deok

Won Yong-deok (元容德, 29 February 1908 – 4 February 1968) was a Soldier and internal medicine physician and politician who played an important role in the politics of the First Republic during the Japanese colonial period and the Republic of Korea. His family seat was Wonju (原州).

Life

He was born in Hanseong in 1908. He spent some early childhood in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, and later graduated from the Severance Medical College with a bachelor's degree in 1932. He then opened a Hospital in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, and worked as a Physician, before enlisting as a military physician in the Army of Manchukuo. He also served as an instructor at the Manchukuo Army Military Academy. At the end of the Pacific War, his rank was Lieutenant colonel (中校, Zhongjiao), equivalent to a lieutenant colonel in the Republic of Korea Armed Forces.

After the Liberation of Korea on 15 August 1945, he moved south. On 5 December 1945, when the US Army Military Government established the Military English School, he was entrusted by the Military Government, together with Lee Eung-joon and Cho Byung-ok, with recruiting Cadets, and he himself took up the post of vice principal. In 1946 he served as the first Commander of the and as principal of the , then as commander of the 8th Regiment of the Army. In 1947 he became commander of the 2nd Brigade of the Army, and in 1949 commander of the 5th Brigade. He then served as director of the administrative staff department of the Army Headquarters, and in 1950 as deputy commander of the Home Guard Command of the Army Headquarters. In 1952 he served as deputy corps commander of the 2nd Army Corps and special adviser to the Minister of National Defense, and then as martial law commander of the Army's Yeongnam district. In 1953 he became the first , and the following year, 1954, the first commander of the . Through these posts he was deeply involved in the founding of the and its early formation. He was the eldest and most senior figure in the network, which included , , and .