Kye Hun-je

Kye Hun-je (桂勳梯, December 31, 1921 – March 14, 1999) was an independence activist of South Korea, a democracy activist, and a social activist who after liberation served as an operating committee member of the National Solidarity Council and as standing co-representative of the National Campaign for Democratic Constitution.¹ He was from Sŏnch'ŏn County, North P'yŏngan Province.

Biography

In 1921, he was born in Sŏnch'ŏn (宣川), P'yŏngan Province, as the youngest of five children of his father Kye Bong-jip (桂鳳集) and his mother Lee Hyeong-jeo (李亨姐).

In 1943, while a first-year student at the Keijo Imperial University, he was arrested by Japanese military police after crossing the border intending to refuse Japanese conscription of students into the army and go to the Provisional Government, and was taken to a volunteer training camp.He carried out anti-Japanese activities while performing heavy labor at a quarry near Pyongyang, joining the "Joseon Minjok Haebang Hyeopdongdan," an anti-Japanese independence organization linked to the Korean Independence League.

After liberation, at the recommendation of Jang Jun-ha, he worked under Baekbeom Kim Gu. Under Baekbeom's influence, he took part in the struggle against the trusteeship, and he supported Baekbeom's North-South negotiations, even shaving his head in protest. When he was president of the student council of the Seoul National University College of Liberal Arts' Department of Political Science, he led the "National University Bill opposition struggle" against the nationalization of Seoul National University under the US Army Military Government.

While serving as student committee chairman, he met Lee Hee-ho and nearly became her husband, but later, when Kye contracted pulmonary tuberculosis and Lee left for study in the United States, their relationship came to an end.²