The sudden death of a high-ranking military commander is an event that inevitably captures the attention of both contemporaries and historians. Recently, the world learned of Ukraine’s successful killing of Russian Lieutenant-General Igor Kirillov. For those with an interest in World War II, similar high-profile assassinations come to mind, such as the killing of SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi German Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, or the plane crash that claimed the life of Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.
During the Korean War (1950–1953), similar incidents occurred as well, but one notable event failed to attract nearly as much attention as one would expect: the sudden death of Kang Kon (1918–1950), North Korea’s first Chief of Staff, on Sept. 8, 1950. At the time of his death, Kang was the sixth most important figure in the North Korean military command structure, after Soviet Ambassador Terentiy Shtykov, Soviet Chief Military Advisor Nikolai Vasiliyev, Premier Kim Il-sung, Foreign Minister Pak Hon-yong and Minister of National Defence Choe Yong-gon. While North Korea did not have military ranks for officers at that time, the position of Chief of Staff was considered graded as “12th-class commander,” and with two large stars on his epaulettes, Kang’s rank was viewed similarly to that of a Soviet Lieutenant-General. As a result, Kang was often referred to by that rank.
Kang Kon was also known by the alias “Kang Shin-thae.” A comrade of Kim Il-sung from the Manchurian anti-Japanese guerrilla forces, he excaped to the Soviet Far Eastern Front after the destruction of the guerrilla forces by the Japanese in 1939-40. In July 1942, the Soviet military, faced with an extreme lack of manpower, established the 88th Separate Infantry Brigade, where Kang and the other partisans served. In 1943, after the commander of the brigade’s Fourth Battalion Chai Shirong, was accused of espionage, Kang Kon was appointed as his successor. His Soviet military rank at the time was that of a Captain, same as Kim Il-sung’s. After Japan’s surrender in 1945, Kang was awarded the Order of the Red Banner – again, just like Kim Il Sung.
In September 1945, Kang returned to Korea and, in February 1948, participated in the founding of the Korean People’s Army (KPA), being appointed the newborn military’s first Chief of Staff. He then played a key role in arming the KPA and in the final planning stages for North Korea’s invasion of the South in 1950. In early June 1950, he ordered North Korean units to move to the 38th parallel in preparation for the attack scheduled for the 25th day of the same month.
According to Soviet Ambassador Shtykov’s records, when the Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950, Kang was initially very confident that the North Korean army would achieve a complete victory. A few days after the capture of Seoul, on July 3, the Soviets established a front command and appointed Kang as the front-line Chief of Staff. He then moved from Pyongyang to the front and took part directly in the war. Soviet records also indicate that Kang expressed difficulties in commanding the military without the assistance of Soviet advisors, requesting their help. One of his notable statements was, “I cannot command the army without the advisors.” However, Soviet authorities forbade sending the advisors to the regions south of the 38th parallel, and Kang, who was in Seoul, suffered significant stress due to his lack of command experience.
As time passed, the situation on the front lines changed. Even before the Inchon landing operation, the North Korean army had been subjected to extensive American bombings. The last mention of Kang in the Soviet records reads as follows:
Mun Il [Kim Il Sung’s secretary – F.T.] reported that Kim Il-sung, who was sick and lying in bed, called him and, in an agitated state, told him that he had received a very serious message from the front’s chief of staff, Kang Kon.
In this message, Kang Kon stated that the enemy had launched continuous, heavy bombardments on the troops using heavy bombers. All the troops on the front were subjected to this kind of bombardment.
The enemy, in groups of 30-40 planes, drops boxes on the troops, which open in the air, spilling out many small bombs.
As a result of such bombing, the troops are suffering significant losses both in personnel and equipment.
As a result of this air raid on Aug. 18, 1950, the 4th Division had lost nearly all personnel. The headquarters was destroyed, and the division commander was killed.
Kang Kon could not escape the same fate. On Sept. 8, 1950 – ironically, on the second anniversary of Kim Il-sung’s ascension to premiership, Kang died. On 11 September, both North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun and the Soviet Pravda reported his death, but the place and cause of death were never disclosed, leaving it a historical mystery for decades. His funeral committee listed the following officials: Pak Hon-yong, Choe Yong-gon, Ho Ga-i, Kim Dal-hyon, Pak Ir-u, Hong Gi-ju, Choe Hyong-dok, Pak Chong-ae, Han Sol-ya and Nam Il. All but Choe Yong-gon and Nam Il later suffered a purge. The fates of the two exceptions were also not that bright: in 1957, Choe Yong-gon was stripped of his rank as Vice Marshal, and Nam Il died in a suspicious car accident in 1976.
It appears that South Korean media did not report on Kang Kon’s death in 1950. Since the effective control of South Korea at the time was limited to the Busan Perimeter, the central newspapers could not cover developments in North Korea. Even in the provisional capital, Busan, the city’s main newspaper, Pusan Ilbo, which, did not report on the enemy’s Chief of Staff.
The circumstances of Kang’s death remained a mystery until 1990, when former North Korean military operations director Yu Song-chol, who had witnessed Kang’s final moments, gave an interview with Hanguk Ilbo where he finally told the world about the Chief of Staff’s death:
The People’s Army had just triumphed over the world’s most powerful military: the U.S. Army. The momentum continued as the KPA captured Taejon on July 20. Afterward, the front-line command was relocated from Seoul to a remote mountain temple north of Taejon (I don’t remember the name or location of the temple). At this time, Kang Kon and I went to plan for the KPA to cross the Kum River, only to face yet another crisis. After inspecting a combat unit, we were travelling along a road next to the Kum River when Kang’s jeep was hit by a blast from a landmine planted by retreating South Korean forces. The jeep tumbled to the side of the road. Kang Kon died instantly on the spot. After recovering his body and returning to the front command, I had no time to grieve; instead, I had to report to the higher-ups and keep his death secret to prevent the People’s Army suffering from morale issues.
North Korea has never disclosed the details surrounding Kang Kon’s death. The Grand Korean Encyclopaedia published under Kim Jong-il’s regime did not explain how or where he had died. Online sources often five the location of his death as “Andong, North Kyongsan Province,” but according to Yu Song-chol’s testimony, this is highly likely to be false. In reality, the Kum River originates in Changsu (North Cholla), flows through Nonsan and Kanggyong (South Chungchong) and passes through North Cholla all the way to the Kunsan Bay.
The claim that Kang died in Andong appears to have originated from a 1970 short story by Kang Yong-jun, titled The Madman’s Diary (광인일기), published in the journal Creation and Criticism (창작과 비평). On page 160 of this issue, there is a sentence stating, “It was true that the puppet army’s Chief of Staff, Kang Kon, was killed by a landmine accident near Andong.” This likely came from the author’s imagination, which was later mistaken for fact. Andong, a county near the Pusan Perimeter, might have seemed a plausible location for the death of a high-ranking North Korean commander. This misinterpretation spread across Wikipedia and other platforms, eventually becoming widely accepted as the truth.
In reality, the location of Kang Kon’s death was west of Andong. The South Korean soldier who set the landmine that killed Kang Kon inadvertently triggered the largest beheading operation in South Korean history. However, the soldier’s name, unit he (or maybe even she) served in and the exact location of the death are likely to remain a mystery forever.
Truly, the Korean War was a War of the Unknown Soldiers.
January 17, 2025 at 05:39AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)