Kim Chon-hae (Korean: 김천해; Hanja: 金天海; RR: Gim Cheon-hae, Japanese reading: Kin Tenkai; 10 May 1898 – c. 1969) was a Zainichi Korean who was a leading figure in the Japanese Communist Party and a founder of the pro-communist Chōren, predecessor of the modern Chongryon. He was subsequently a politician in North Korea, holding posts connected to the Workers' Party of Korea.

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Quick Facts Korean name, Hangul ...

Kim Chon-hae
Korean name
Hangul	김천해
Hanja	金天海
Revised Romanization	Gim Cheon-hae
McCune–Reischauer	Kim Ch'ŏn-hae
Art name
Hangul	김학의
Hanja	金鶴儀
Revised Romanization	Gim Hak-ui
McCune–Reischauer	Kim Hak-ŭi
Japanese name: Kin Tenkai (金天海)

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Born in 1898 at Ulsan, in 1920 he moved to Japan and studied mathematics at Nihon University in Tokyo. While there, he organized a Korean workers' movement and was elected chairman of the Federal Union of Zainichi Koreans.^[1] Detained as a political prisoner, he was released on 10 October 1945 after Japan's defeat in the Second World War, and became a member of the executive committee of the JCP.^[2]

Although Chōren was founded as a non-political organization, his appointment as supreme adviser ensured its drift toward the left.^[2] Under Kim's influence, the League purged its anti-communist members and in February 1946 it joined the Korean Democratic National Front.^[3] In 1951, Edward Wagner described Kim as "the man who probably is to be credited more than any other with shaping the League's political orientation and preserving its undeviating character".^[4]

He subsequently moved to North Korea in 1950 and became a member of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea,^[5] and from April 1956 he served as chairman of the Fatherland Front.^[6] He remained in the Front's presidium through the first half of the 1960s.^[7] North Korean official sources state that Kim died in 1969,^[8] but the actual date and circumstances of his death are unknown.^[5]