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The Street Leaders of Seoul and the Foundations of the South Korean Political Order*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2015

ERIK MOBRAND
ERIK MOBRAND*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore, Singapore Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

In the decade and a half following Korean liberation from Japan in 1945, a category of men prowled Seoul's back alleys and also its halls of power. These figures might be called street leaders, for they were directly linked on one hand to private agents of violence and on the other to the top state and political elites of the country. The most notorious individuals included Kim Tu-han, a gang leader who became an elected politician, and Yi Chŏng-jae, a ‘political gangster’ who helped party politicians with their dirty work. Street leaders like Kim and Yi were on the scene at key moments in the republic's early political development. An examination of the political careers of Kim and Yi reveals how important cooperation between such actors and elite politicians was to state-building, political mobilization, and design of electoral institutions—processes that created the contemporary South Korean polity. Both the alliances between politicians and street leaders as well as the destruction of those alliances left deep impressions on South Korean politics.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , March 2016 , pp. 636 - 674
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

*

For helpful suggestions on the article, I would like to thank Tae-gyun Park, Suzy Kim, John DiMoia, Jamie Davidson, Lynn White, Hyejin Kim, anonymous reviewers for the journal, and participants in the 2011 Kyujanggak International Symposium on Korean Studies at Seoul National University. This work was supported by a grant from the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2009-R-65 and AKS-2010-R-65) and one from the National University of Singapore.

References

1 Partial exceptions include Pong-jin, Kim, ‘Migunjŏng-gi Kim Tu-han ŭi “paeksaek t’erŏ” wa taehan minju ch’ŏngnyŏn tongmaeng’ (Kim Tu-Han's ‘white terror’ and the Taehan Democratic Youth Alliance during the period of the American Military Government), Taegu sahak (Taegu history) 97 (2009), pp. 35–75Google Scholar; Cho Sŏng-gwŏn, ‘Haebang hu uik ch’ŏngnyŏn tanch’e-esŏ hwaldonghan p’ongnyŏk chojik-ŭi sŏnggyŏk: 1945–1953’ (The formation of criminal organizations out of rightwing youth groups after liberation: 1945–1953), paper presented at the Korean Political Science Association Meeting, 19 April 1997; Sŏng-gwŏn, Cho, ‘Han’guk chojik pŏmjoe-ŭi kiwŏn-kwa t’ŭksŏng: 1953–1960’ (The origin and characteristics of Korean organized crime: 1953–1960), Hyŏngsa chŏngch’aek yŏn’gu (Criminal policy research) 8 (3) (Autumn 1997), pp. 135–68Google Scholar. The accounts by Kwŏn draw heavily on the popular, embellished memoirs of the actors involved.

2 Coble, Parks M., The Shanghai Capitalists and the Nationalist Government, 1927–1937 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University and Harvard University Press, 1980), pp. 36–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Martin, Brian G., The Shanghai Green Gang: Politics and Organized Crime, 1919–1937 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996)Google Scholar.

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8 Kim claimed he lived with other child-beggars under a bridge in central Seoul. See Tu-han, Kim, Kim Tu-han chasŏjŏn (Autobiography of Kim Tu-Han), vol. 1 (Seoul: Maet’ŭro sinmunsa, 2002), pp. 49–56Google Scholar. Many aspects of Kim Tu-han's life seem unbelievable, in part because of the embellishments that have been added by Kim himself and by later media treatments of his story. He claimed to be both the son of a national hero and a street urchin with nobody to whom to turn. Further, his given name, ‘Tu-han’, means ‘fighting man’, which seems a striking coincidence for a man who went on to be just that. However, evidence from news reports confirms his name and his childhood situation. As early as 1925, Kim Tu-han was listed in a report as the child of Kim Chwa-jin. Though this evidence does not prove Kim's biological paternity, it does rule out the possibility that the link to Kim Chwa-jin was a myth constructed by Kim later in his career. Shortly after Kim Chwa-jin's death, the Andong Kim association announced in a newspaper a meeting to discuss the future of orphaned Kim Tu-han. See Maeil sinmun 15 September 1925, p. 2, Chungoe ilbo 20 May 1930, p. 3, and Chungoe ilbo 18 February 1930, p. 2.

9 Kim Tu-han, Chasŏjŏn, 1, pp. 126–31.

10 Kim was the subject of multiple films in the 1970s. In the 1980s several authors wrote about him and other colonial gangsters in a romantic way. A serialized version of his story was published by Hong Sŏng-yu as ‘The Human Theatre’ (In’gan kŭkchang). This version was turned into a film, The General's Son (Changgun ŭi adŭl). Directed by the famous filmmaker Im Kwŏn-t’aek, The General's Son broke box-office records and led to two sequels. The story centred on a young Kim Tu-han fighting Japanese police and gangsters. This interpretation of Kim as an anti-Japanese hero remained in subsequent treatments, including the 126-part 2002–03 television drama, Yain sidae.

11 Kŏn’guk ch’ŏngnyŏn undong hyŏbŭihoe, Taehan min’guk kŏn’guk ch’ŏngnyŏn undongsa (The history of the youth movement in the establishment of the Republic of Korea) (Seoul: Kŏn’guk ch’ŏngnyŏn undong hyŏbŭihoe, 1989), p. 789; Kim Tu-han, Chasŏjŏn, 2002, 1, pp. 153–54. Kim (vol. 1, p. 163) puts a patriotic spin on his involvement in this organization when he explains that his ‘basic objective in establishing the Peninsula Volunteer Youth Association was, first, to avoid imprisonment on Haenam Island and, second, to raise a youth organization that could one day play a central nationalist role in liberated Korea’. At other points he is more honest about his collaboration: ‘Even though it would mean I, the son of General “Paengnya” Kim Chwa-jin, would be supporting Japan, I made the grim (pijanghan) decision to save myself and my 3,000 men’ (vol. 1, p. 132).

12 Kim Tu-han, Chasŏjŏn, 1, pp. 135, 145, 151–53. Popular treatments also portray relationships between Kim and Yi, but this author has found no evidence of a direct connection.

13 Han’guk hyŏngmyŏng chaep’ansa p’yŏnch’an wiwŏnhoe, Han’guk hyŏngmyŏng chaep’ansa (History of Korea's revolutionary trials) (Seoul: Han’guk hyŏngmyŏng chaep’ansa p’yŏnch’an wiwŏnhoe, 1962), p. 381.

14 Pong-suk, Son, ‘Yi paksa wa chayudang ŭi tokchu’ (Dr. Rhee and the Liberal Party's dominance), in Han’guk ŭi chŏngdang, che-1 p’yŏn: 8.15 esŏ chayudang punggoe kkaji (Korea's political parties, vol. 1: From August 15 to the Liberal Party's collapse), ilbosa, Han’guk (ed.) (Seoul: Han’guk ilbosa, 1987), p. 285Google Scholar.

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16 Chosŏn ilbo 3 April 1959 (evening), p. 3.

17 Hangminsa p’yŏnjipsil, Hyŏngmyŏng chaep’an, p. 251.

18 Ibid, p. 280.

19 Ibid, p. 281.

20 Pyŏng-ch’ŏl, Chŏng, Hugyeja che 1 kwŏn: Kim Tu-han kwa Cho Il-hwan (The successor, vol. 1: Kim Tu-han and Cho Il-hwan) (Seoul: Myŏngsol ch’ulp’an, 2003), p. 9Google Scholar; MBC (Munhwa pangsong), ‘Kkangp’ae wa kŏndal-lo pon han’guk 100 nyŏn’ (Korea's 100 years seen through gangsters and hoodlums), Part 1, 2 April 1999.

21 Hobsbawm, E. J., Bandits (Middlesex: Penguin, 1972), p. 46Google Scholar.

22 Arlacchi, Pino, Mafia Business: The Mafia Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Martin Ryle (trans.) (New York: Verso, 1986), p. 4Google Scholar.

23 Martin, Green Gang, p. 24. Green Gang members regarded themselves as ‘haoxia’, translated by Martin as ‘men of honour and courage’. The xia in that term is the same character as the hyŏp in the Korean hyŏpgaek. In Japan yakuza have called themselves kyokaku, which corresponds to the same characters as hyŏpgaek.

24 Cribb, Robert, Gangsters and Revolutionaries: The Jakarta People's Militia and the Indonesian Revolution, 1945–1949 (Sydney: Asian Studies Association of Australia in association with Allen and Unwin, 1991), p. 29Google Scholar.

25 Chantornvong, Sombat, ‘Local Godfathers in Thai Politics’, in Money and Power in Provincial Thailand, McVey, Ruth (ed.) (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and Silkworm Books, 2000), p. 54Google Scholar.

26 Chosŏn ilbo 16 September 1958 (evening), p. 3.

27 On youth groups, see Cumings, Bruce, Origins of the Korean War, Vol. 2: The Roaring of the Cataract (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990), pp. 193–203Google Scholar.

28 Kyŏng-nam, Yi, ‘Sŏbuk ch’ŏngnyŏndan’ (The Northwest Youth Association), Sindonga no. 217 (September 1982), pp. 168–71Google Scholar.

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30 Cumings, Origins, I, pp. 175 and 506, note 189.

31 Ryu Sang-yŏng, ‘Haebang ihu’, pp. 92–94.

32 Ibid, p. 72.

33 Accounts of Kim's activity immediately after liberation conflict. Kim claims he and his men formed an ‘action group’ (kidongdae) within a branch of the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence, an organization branded leftist. According to another source, he was in prison for dealing drugs. The latter story sounds likely, but it might also be an attempt to cover up inconvenient facts about Kim. See Kim Tu-han, Chasŏjŏn, 1, pp. 163, 167; Kŏn’guk ch’ŏngnyŏn undong hyŏbŭihoe, Ch’ŏngnyŏn undongsa, p. 790.

34 Kŏn’guk ch’ŏngnyŏn undong hyŏbŭihoe, Ch’ŏngnyŏn undongsa, pp. 791–92; According to Kim, Chŏng was a childhood friend. Tu-han, Kim, Kim Tu-han chasŏjŏn (Autobiography of Kim Tu-han), vol. 2 (Seoul: Maet’ŭro sinmunsa, 2002), pp. 44–45Google Scholar.

35 Kim gives this reason in his autobiography. Kim Tu-han, Chasŏjŏn, 1, p. 167.

36 Hong-gu, Han, Taehan min’guk sa (History of the Republic of Korea), vol. 1 (Seoul: Han’gyŏrye ch’ulp’ansa, 2003), pp. 77–78Google Scholar.

37 Kim Pong-jin, ‘Kim Tu-han’, pp. 40–42.

38 Kŏn’guk ch’ŏngnyŏn undong hyŏbŭihoe, Ch’ŏngnyŏn undongsa, p. 794.

39 Ryu Sang-yŏng, ‘Haebang ihu’, pp. 88–90.

40 Kŏn’guk ch’ŏngnyŏn undong hyŏbŭihoe, Ch’ŏngnyŏn undongsa, pp. 797–98.

41 Ibid, pp. 814.

42 Kim Pong-jin, ‘Kim Tu-han’, pp. 43–44; Ryu Sang-yŏng, ‘Haebang ihu’, pp. 89–90.

43 Kyŏng-nam, Yi, ‘Pu-but’ongnyŏng Kwak Yŏng-ju wa Tongk’ap’one Yi Chŏng-jae’ (Vice-vice president Kwak Yŏng-ju and ‘Capone of the East’, Yi Chŏng-jae), Sindonga no. 221, no. 1 (January 1983), p. 149Google Scholar.

44 On Cho and Chang in the police administration, see Cumings, Origins, I, pp. 151–69.

45 Exact figures on the numbers involved vary between these sources, from 500 total to 300 under Kim plus 400 in attached groups. See Kŏn’guk ch’ŏngnyŏn undong hyŏbŭihoe, Ch’ŏngnyŏn undongsa, pp. 825–26; Ryu Sang-yŏng, ‘Haebang ihu’, pp. 90–91; Kim Pong-jin, ‘Kim Tu-han’, p. 47.

46 Kŏn’guk ch’ŏngnyŏn undong hyŏbŭihoe, Ch’ŏngnyŏn undongsa, p. 832.

47 Kim Pong-jin, ‘Kim Tu-han’, pp. 50–51.

48 Yi Kyŏng-nam, ‘Sŏbuk ch’ŏngnyŏndan’, pp. 173–74; Ryu Sang-yŏng, ‘Haebang ihu’, p. 99.

49 Yi Kyŏng-nam, ‘Sŏbuk ch’ŏngnyŏndan’, pp. 167–68.

50 Kŏn’guk ch’ŏngnyŏn undong hyŏbŭihoe, Ch’ŏngnyŏn undongsa, p. 794; Kwang-su, Kim, Chibang chŏngch’i ŭi t’amsaek: Honam ŭi chŏngch’i (An inquiry into local politics: Honam's politics) (Kwangju: Chŏnnam taehakkyo ch’ulp’anpu, 1997), pp. 121–22Google Scholar.

51 Kŏn’guk ch’ŏngnyŏn undong hyŏbŭihoe, Ch’ŏngnyŏn undongsa, pp. 816–21.

52 Chosŏn ilbo 25 April 1947, p. 2.

53 Tonga ilbo 11 February 1948, p. 2.

54 Kŏn’guk ch’ŏngnyŏn undong hyŏbŭihoe, Ch’ŏngnyŏn undongsa, pp. 838–39.

55 Kim Pong-jin, ‘Kim Tu-han’, p. 53.

56 Tonga ilbo 4 July 1947, p. 2; Chosŏn ilbo 4 July 1947, p. 2.

57 Tonga ilbo 17 March 1948, p. 2.

58 Eighteen youth groups expressed outrage at Kim's sentence and issued a public statement. Tonga ilbo 26 March 1948, p. 2.

59 Kim Pong-jin, ‘Kim Tu-han’, p. 66.

60 P’yŏnghwa sinmun 21 December 1948, in Kuksa p’yŏnch’an wiwŏnhoe (ed.), Charyo taehan min’guksa (Reference materials on the history of the Republic of Korea), vol. 9, November–December, 1948 (Kwach’ŏn, 1998), pp. 625–26.

61 Kyŏnghyang sinmun 6 January 1949, in Kuksa p’yŏnch’an wiwŏnhoe (ed.), Charyo taehan min’guksa (Reference materials on the history of the Republic of Korea), vol. 10, January–February 1949 (Kwach’ŏn, 1999), p. 53.

62 Kŏn’guk ch’ŏngnyŏn undong hyŏbŭihoe, Ch’ŏngnyŏn undongsa, p. 1488.

63 Syngman Rhee, for example, gave money to the Northwest Youth Association. Yi Kyŏng-nam, ‘Sŏbuk ch’ŏngnyŏndan’, p. 168.

64 Tongnip sinmun 30 December 1948, in Kuksa p’yŏnch’an wiwŏnhoe, Charyo taehan min’guksa 9, p. 728; Tongnip sinmun 9 January 1949, in Kuksa p’yŏnch’an wiwŏnhoe, Charyo taehan min’guksa 10, pp. 80–81.

65 Yi Sin-ch’ŏl, ‘Yi Ki-bung kwa Chang Myŏn, kŭrigo 4.19 hyŏngmyŏng’ (Yi Ki-bung, Chang Myŏn, and the 4.19 revolution), Uri kyoyuk (chungdŭngyong) (Our education [secondary school use]) (April 1995), p. 187.

66 Kim Sŭng-ŭn, ‘“Nŏmbŏ t’u” ŭi sangjing, Yi Ki-bung’ (The symbol of ‘number two’, Yi Ki-bung), Naeil yŏnŭn yŏksa (Tomorrow's history) 31 (March 2008), pp. 98–99.

67 Pyŏng-ju, Yi, Kŭ hae 5-wŏl (May of that year), vol. 2 (P’aju: Han’gilsa, 2006), p. 41Google Scholar; Han’guk hyŏngmyŏng chaep’ansa p’yŏnch’an wiwŏnhoe, Hyŏngmyŏng chaep’ansa, pp. 385–86.

68 Yi Kyŏng-nam, ‘Pu-but’ongnyŏng’, p. 147.

69 Son Pong-suk, ‘Yi paksa’, pp. 283–84.

70 Yi Kyŏng-nam, ‘Pu-but’ongnyŏng’, p. 163.

71 Son Pong-suk, ‘Yi paksa’, p. 281.

72 These details come from the testimony of an informant to the prosecution. Chosŏn ilbo 6 June 1957 (morning), p. 2.

73 Newspaper use of the term came soon after the incident, for example in Chosŏn ilbo 28 June 1957 (evening), p. 3. In fact, the term ‘gangster’ (kkangp’ae), taken partly from the English ‘gang’, came into use only at this time. Today kkangp’ae refers to a member of any criminal organization. The word's original meaning indicated a criminal tied to politics.

74 Chosŏn ilbo 15 August 1957 (evening), p. 3.

75 Kŏn’guk ch’ŏngnyŏn undong hyŏbŭihoe, Ch’ŏngnyŏn undongsa, p. 1489.

76 Chosŏn ilbo 16 December 1958 (morning), p. 2.

77 Han Hong-gu, Taehan min’guk sa, 1, p. 82.

78 Yu-sŏk, O, ‘“Yain sidae” chuin’gong Kim Tu-han ŭn “hyŏpkaek” iŏttna?’ (Was Kim Tu-han, hero of ‘Yain Sidae’, a ‘man of valour’?), Sindonga no. 517 (October 2002), pp. 618–27Google Scholar.

79 Tonga ilbo 27 January 1955, p. 1.

80 Son Pong-suk, ‘Yi paksa’, pp. 285–88.

81 Ibid, p. 292. The organization's top leadership would later stress that the Taehan Anticommunist Youth Corps was formally independent of the Liberal Party.

82 Han’guk hyŏngmyŏng chaep’ansa p’yŏnch’an wiwŏnhoe, Hyŏngmyŏng chaep’ansa, pp. 385–89. The founding chief was a man named Kim Yong-u, from whom Sin took over in August 1959.

83 Yi, for example, introduced his ally Im Hwa-su to Kwak Yŏng-ju. Hangminsa p’yŏnjipsil, Hyŏngmyŏng chaep’an, p. 271.

84 Yi Kyŏng-nam, ‘Pu-but’ongnyŏng’, p. 169.

85 Hangminsa p’yŏnjipsil, Hyŏngmyŏng chaep’an, pp. 33–34.

86 Ibid, pp. 246–47; Yi Kyŏng-nam, ‘Pu-but’ongnyŏng’, pp. 172–73.

87 Hangminsa p’yŏnjipsil, Hyŏngmyŏng chaep’an, p. 214.

88 Ibid, p. 286.

89 Hee, Park Chung, The Country, the Revolution and I, Leon Sinder (trans.) (Seoul: 1963), pp. 46–47Google Scholar.

90 Tonga ilbo 23 May 1961, p. 2 (evening); and Kyŏnghyang sinmun 26 May 1961, p. 3 (evening).

91 By early June nearly 10,000 agents of violence (p’ongnyŏkbae) had been detained. Tonga ilbo 6 June 1961, p. 3 (morning).

92 Minju han’guk hyŏngmyŏng ch’ŏngsa p’yŏnch’an wiwŏnhoe, Minju han’guk hyŏngmyŏng ch’ŏngsa (A record of revolution in democratic Korea) (Seoul: Minju han’guk hyŏngmyŏng ch’ŏngsa p’yŏnch’an wiwŏnhoe, 1963), p. 16.

93 This episode is depicted in the 1996 feature film Posŭ (Boss), directed by and starring Cho Yang-ŭn, the rising gang's leader.

94 Sŏng-su, Pang, ‘Han’guk chop’ok ŭi yŏksa wa kyebo: Ton innŭn kose pup’ae ittgo, pu’pae innŭn kose chop’ok kkoenda’ (The history and genealogy of Korean gangsters: Where there is money there is corruption, where there is corruption there is an infestation of gangsters), Wŏlgan chosŏn (Chosŏn monthly) 22, no. 11 (November 2001), pp. 168–86Google Scholar. On the careers of Kim and Cho Yang-ŭn, see Sŏng-sik, Cho, ‘Kim T’ae-ch’on – Cho Yang-ŭn 40-yŏn hongmangsa’ (The rise and fall of Kim T’ae-ch’on and Cho Yang-ŭn over 40 years), Sindonga no. 573 (1 June 2007), pp. 136–59Google Scholar.

95 Chungang ilbo 16 April 1979, p. 2 and 21 April 1979, p. 7.

96 Between October 1969 and January 1970, a radio station broadcast a daily programme in which Kim Tu-han told his life story. See http://dbs.donga.com/comm/view.php?r_id=00176&r_serial=02, [accessed 31 March 2013].

97 Blok, Anton, ‘The Peasant and the Brigand: Social Banditry Reconsidered’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 14, no. 4 (September 1972), pp. 494–503CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hobsbawm, E. J., ‘Social Bandits: Reply’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 14, no. 4 (September 1972), pp. 503–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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99 Author's visits in 2008 to the graves of Kim and Yi in, respectively, Yangju and Yich’ŏn, both in Kyŏnggi province.

100 Arlacchi, Mafia Business; Blok, Anton, The Mafia of a Sicilian Village, 1860–1960: A Study of Violent Peasant Entrepreneurs (London: Harper and Row, 1975)Google Scholar; Gambetta, Diego, The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1993)Google Scholar.

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102 In fact, one politician has gained from this image. Kim's daughter, currently a second-term legislator, has run campaigns that stress the popular portrayal of her father as a hero.

103 Ch’ŏl-sŭng, Yi and Kap-tong, Pak, Taehan min’guk irŏk’e sewŏtta(The Republic of Korea was built this way) (Seoul: Kaemyŏngsa, 1998), p. 285Google Scholar.

104 As early as 1968 Gregory Hendersen noted the important role of American Military Government-era youth groups in political socialization, spawning many future legislators. As far this author knows, there has been no systematic study of National Assemblymen who cut their teeth in these groups. See Korea: The Politics of the Vortex (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1968), p. 142.

105 Chin, Ko-lin, Heijin: Organized Crime, Business, and Politics in Taiwan (Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2003)Google Scholar.

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108 Interview, Kwangju, June 2009.

109 Bosses even pursue advanced degrees to gain the skills they need in management and accounting. See Han’guk ilbo 9 October 2001, p. 33.

110 Siniawer, Ruffians, Yakuza, Nationalists, pp. 172–74.

111 Kyŏng-su, Kim, ‘“Yongp’ari” sagŏn 20-yŏn, Kim Yong-nam ssinŭn chigŭm: Kangmok taesin noran kitbal’ (20 years since the ‘Yongp’ari’ incident, Kim Yong-nam now: A yellow flag instead of a club), Chugan chosŏn (Chosŏn weekly) no. 1982 (3 December 2007), pp. 22–25Google Scholar.

112 The church's website includes several features on Kim. See http://www.sarang.org/default.asp, [accessed 31 March 2013].

113 Shiu-Hing Lo, Sonny, ‘The Politics of Crime in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao’, Asian Affairs 39, no. 2 (July 2008), p. 254Google Scholar.