Cho Man-sik

Life

Cho Man-sik was born on February 1, 1883. His birthplace is commonly given as Kangso County, South Pyongan Province, although the Dictionary of Independence Activists records it as Chinhyang-ri, Pyongyang Prefecture. He went into business at about the age of fifteen, and from the age of twenty-two he devoted himself to religious activity alongside his commercial work. Relatively late in life he went to Japan to study and graduated from the law department of Meiji University.

After returning to Korea, he taught at Osan School and became its principal in 1915. During the March First Movement of 1919, he led independence demonstrations in Sachon, South Pyongan Province. He then attempted to go to China to continue the independence struggle but was arrested and imprisoned for one year.

Immediately after liberation, he was named chairman of the South Pyongan Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence in Pyongyang, and he later became president of the Korean Democratic Party. In January 1946, after he opposed the trusteeship decision of the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers (the meeting of the foreign ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union), the Soviet military administration confined him in the Koryo Hotel in Pyongyang. The following month, a declaration denouncing him was adopted within the Korean Democratic Party, and Kang Ryang-uk was elected interim party leader. He is believed to have been killed in Pyongyang in October 1950, during the Korean War.

Work and Achievements

• Education: He taught at Osan School, first as a teacher and later as principal.
• Economic self-reliance movement: He was at the forefront of the Korean Products Promotion Movement, which urged Koreans to use domestic goods and to refrain from buying Japanese products.
• People's university movement: He led the Society for the Establishment of a People's University, which sought to raise private funds so that Koreans could found a university through their own efforts.
• Singanhoe: He worked toward the founding of the Singanhoe, an organization that brought together leftist and rightist forces, and served as a member of its central committee and as head of its Pyongyang branch.
• Christian organizations: He took the lead in establishing the Pyongyang chapter of the YMCA, a Christian youth organization (see YMCA of Korea).

Influence on the Korean Church

Cho Man-sik was not a pastor but a church elder who was active in education, economics, and politics. For this reason, he is frequently cited when the Korean church discusses the social engagement of the laity or the relationship between faith and the national movement. His end—confinement under the Communist regime followed by his disappearance—is also mentioned in histories of the church in North Korea and of the church during the Korean War. Denominations and theological traditions differ on the extent to which believers should participate in politics (see church and politics).

Assessment

In 1970 the government of the Republic of Korea awarded him the Order of Merit for National Foundation, Republic of Korea Medal. The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs describes him as "an exemplary teacher of the nation," praising his efforts to promote cooperation between left and right, as well as his leadership of the anti-trusteeship movement and the movement for national self-determination and independence after liberation. Points on which the records differ or that remain unverified, such as his birthplace and the circumstances of his death, require further research.