O Chin-u

Korean spelling
Chosŏn'gŭl	오진우
Hancha	吳振宇
Revised Romanization	O Jin-u
McCune- Reischauer	O Chinu
See also : Korean name

O Chin-u (March 8, 1917 - February 25, 1995 ) was a North Korean military and politician. He was his country's defense minister for many years.

Life

For a long time, O Chin-u was considered the third most powerful man in North Korea after head of state Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il . He fought together with Kim Il-sung for Chōsen's independence from Japan and after the war began a career in the army of the newly founded Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). During the Korean War (1950–1953) he made a name for himself as a military man and remained his close advisor until Kim Il-sung's death in 1994. In April 1967, he supported Kim Il-sung in expelling a group of internal party opponents, the so-called “Kapsan faction”, from the party and then deporting them to camps or having them executed.

One year after Kim, O Chin-u died of cancer in 1995 . He had previously undergone medical treatment in France .

The post of Minister of Defense, which O had held since 1976, was not replaced by Ch'oe Kwang until seven months later . As one of only two North Korean military personnel next to Kim Jong-il, O Chin-u carried the title Wŏnsu ( Marshal ), which denotes the second highest military rank in North Korea.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Daniel Gomà: El nacimiento de la Dinastía Roja: La instauración de la sucesión hereditary en Corea del Norte (1970-1974) . In: Historia Contemporánea , ISSN  1130-2402 , No. 62 (2020), pp. 159–186, here p. 169.
2. ↑ Sheryl Wudunn: O Jin U, the Defense Minister Of North Korea, Is Dead at 77 . In: New York Times , February 26, 1995, accessed April 15, 2020.

predecessor	Office	successor
Choe Hyon	Defense Minister of North Korea May 1976 – February 1995	Ch'oe Kwang

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. O is the family name here, Chin-u is the first name.