Yi Yong (politician)

Biography

Yi Yong was born in Bukcheong, South Hamgyong Province, as the son of Yi Jun, the figure tied to the Hague Secret Incident. He moved with his father to Seoul and enrolled at Boseong College, but left school after hearing about his father's self-determination. When Japanese repression made operating inside Korea too difficult, he fled to Vladivostok in 1910. In August 1911, he went to northeastern China and worked as secretary for the Korean People's Association under the Korean National Residents' Association. He studied at the Zhejiang Physical Education School in China, then graduated from the artillery program at the Army Military Academy in Zhejiang Province in 1918, afterward serving in the 8th Regiment of the Zhejiang Province Army. In April 1919, near Vladivostok, he became a central member of the military division of both the Shinmindan and the Korean Socialist Party. In 1920, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea named him commander of the East Road, and he focused on uniting anti-Japanese armed groups in North Korea and laying groundwork for a military academy. He took part in the Battle of Fengwudong and the Battle of Qingshanli in October. After Japanese forces, defeated in those battles, colluded with others to stage the Hunchun Incident and sent massive troops in response, leading to the Gando attacks and massacres, Yi moved to Russian territory in late 1920. In January 1921, the Communist Party of Korea, through the Korean Ministry of the Far East, appointed him chairman of the Provisional Military Service. In March, at the Korean Medical Association held in Masanov, Amur, he was elected a military member of the Korean Medical Corps, aiming to unite the armed forces of elderly Koreans and those from Manchuria. During the disarmament of the Korean Medical Corps in June, Russian troops captured him, but he escaped while being held in Irkutsk in July and fled to Iman province, a neutral zone between the Far East and Japanese forces. In October, in Iman, the Korean Medical and Jeonhan Military Committees were reestablished by the Armed Forces Army, and he became Commander of the Korean Medical Army.