Ho Song-taek

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Ho Song-taek (1908–1958) was a Korean labor activist, independence fighter, and early North Korean politician. He was born in Seongjin, North Hamgyong Province. In 1927 he led anti-Japanese labor actions in solidarity with unions, using the names Heo Kuk-taek, Heo Sung-taek, and Heo Young-shik. In the early 1930s he realized that socialism and economic knowledge were needed for labor and independence work. He returned to Korea in 1935, joined the labor movement, and led strikes against Japan; in 1936 he was imprisoned for three years in the Sungjin Farmers Union.

From 1940 he helped rebuild the Communist Party of Korea, and after Korea’s liberation he organized the National Council of the Korean Workers’ Union, a labor group linked to the Namro Party. He graduated from the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in 1934. After liberation, he organized farmers and unions, and in August 1948 he became a central member of the Korean Workers’ Party. In September 1946 he led the large September General Strike of the Korea Trade Unions. The crackdown by anti-communist groups and the U.S. military police failed to stop him, and he spent a year in prison.

In September 1948, when North Korea was declared, he was elected to the Supreme People’s Assembly and became the first Labor Minister in Kim Il Sung’s cabinet. He later served as Minister of Transport in 1954 and Minister of Coal Industry in 1957. He was purged and executed in 1958.