Lee Sung Yup - The US Master Spy in Pyongynag

Lee Sung Yup - The US Master Spy in Pyongyang

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●A Communist Japanese Collaborator

When Japan was defeated in 1945, countless Korean nationalists walked out of Japanese prisons and rejoiced at free Korea. Many Korean exiles abroad wept with joy when Hirohito surrendered. However, there were many Koreans feared free Korea - those who had betrayed their own people and worked for the Japanese fully expected harsh retributions for their crimes against Korea. This was, indeed, the case in North Korea, but the American occupiers of South Korea not only protected these traitors but empowered them to lord over the Korean people.

It is commonly believed that traitors and turncoats came mainly from Korean nationalist camps, but the truth of the matter is that they came from leftist/communist camps as well. There were a number of turncoats among the leading circle of the Communist Party of Korea - Lee Sung Yup (이승엽 李承燁), Cho Il Myong (조일명 趙一明), Jung Tae Sik (정태식 鄭泰植), Lim Wha (임화 林和), and Choe Yong Dahl (최용달 崔容達), amongst others.

How can one reconcile the fact the communists were the most hostile to pro-Japanese Korean traitors and yet, they were the most forgiving to the traitors among their ranks? How had this contradiction affect the nationalist movement after liberation?

The case of Lee Sung Yup shed much light on these questions. Lee Sung Yup had been a communist activist until the eve of the liberation, when he became a turncoat for the Japanese. He became an executive with a food company in Inchon and enjoyed a capitalist lifestyle. Nevertheless, he was chosen to be the deputy head of the Communist Party of South Korea. The Party boss, Park Hyong Young picked Lee to be his deputy. Why did Park select a pro-Japanese turncoat for his right-hand man?

●Lee the Socialist Activist

Lee Sung Yup was born on February 8, 1905 in a small village in Gyongi Province. His father was a boatman at the time. His family moved to Inchon and opened a small lodging business. He participated in the March 1st Movement of 1919, and for this, he was expelled from the Inchon School of Commerce. Out of school and unable to find a job, he went to Japan looking for a job. After three months of fruitless job search in Japan, he gave up and returned home.

At age 19, Lee joined the Independence Corps and planned to go to Manchuria, but he became ill on the eve of his departure and had to abandon the trip. The following year, he met a man from Russia, who had arranged for him to study in Moscow, but unfortunately the man from Russia was arrested and his trip to Moscow was cancelled. He gave up on foreign travels and became a youth activist. On March 8, 1925, Lee was elected the chairman of the Jemulpo Youth Association. He led youth and labor movements in Inchon and joined the Communist Party of Korea in September 1925 at the urging of Kim Dan Yah (金丹冶).

By October 20, 1925, Lee was among the top 50 leaders of the Korean Labor Union. In November 1925, the leading cadres of the Communist Party of Korea were arrested in the aftermath of the ill-planned Sinyiju Incident. Later, Kang Dal Young (강달영 姜達永) formed the Second Communist Party of Korea and Lee joined the party leadership. There were nine party sections in Seoul at the time and Lee belonged to the 3rd section along with Kang Dal Young, Cho Young Ju (조용주 趙鏞周) and Lee Bong Su (이봉수 李鳳洙). Lee Sung Yup was arrested in connection with the June 10th mass demonstration organized by the Communist Party of Korea.

Lee was released from jail after serving his one year repentance. In 1930, Kim Dan Ya returned to Korea on a Comintern mission to rebuild the shattered communist party of Korea. Kim recruited Lee to organize communists in Inchon. The communists organized a mass demonstration on the 10th anniversary of the 1919 March First Movement and once again the key leaders were arrested. Lee escaped, however, and fled to southern regions, where he was active in party organizations. In Masan, Lee organizes a secret society - The Bolsheviks - and published a journal by the same name. In 1931, Lee helped establish the Pusan Communist Party. Lee was arrested again and sentenced to four years in prison.

According to Lee's own statements at his trial: "I got out of the Suhdaumun Prison in 1926 and met Kwon Oh Jik and Cho Il Myong in Inchon. But our movement was discovered by the police and I had to flee to Gyongsan Province. I contracted tuberculosis there and supported by myself working for a fisherman. In 1931, Park Hyon Yong ordered me to organize party cells in South Gyongsang Province; and Kim Hyon Sun from China and I worked together trying to rebuild the party there.

I went to Taegu and worked among the farmers in that region. I was arrested in October 1931 in connection with the handbills incident. I continued my communist activities after leaving the prison until I was arrested again in 1937. After serving two years at the Hamhung prison, I was free again in 1939. "

●An Opportunist-Communist Turncoat

As the Sino-Japanese War heated up, Japan began to Japanize the Korean people in earnest. Japan was in need of manpower and raw materials for its war efforts. Japanese police and military mounted major campaigns to root out anti-Japanese elements in Korea. They passed surveillance laws and locked up Koreans suspected of harboring anti-Japan feelings under the political crimes law. Communists, nationalists, independence activists and other 'suspicious' Koreans were herded into 9 detention centers for close observation by the police.

According to a 1940 Japanese document, out of 7,600 detainees, 1,280 had recanted anti-Japanese attitudes and became "Japanese". By October 1943, more than 5,400 detainees had defected. Among the defectors was Lee Sung Yup, who said:

"I was arrested again in 1940. The Japanese police demanded that I renounce communism and become a servant of the Emperor. I refused and opted to stay in prison, where I met Cho Bong Am, one of the leaders of the Tuesday faction of the Communist Party of Korea. Cho counseled me to be flexible and go along with the Japanese. He said I would do more for the Party out in the society free than locked up in prison cell, which made sense to me. Accordingly, I renounced communism in October and was freed.

I worked with Park Hyon Yong, until he was forced underground in1940. Park asked me to join him but I told him that I had to take care of my family first and then later, I would join up with him. I got a job with a food distributor in Inchon where I worked from May 1941 till June 1945. I worked hard to procure food for the Japanese war effort during this period."

Lee claimed that he did not wish to defect but Cho Bong Ahm, his former mentor, advised him to defect. After formally defecting, he did work with Park Hyon Yong for sometime before abandoning his party work. In those days, Lee was not alone in deserting, at least on paper, anti-Japanese camps. Many anti-Japanese Koreans were forced into pro-Japanese activities but deep in their heart, they were still anti-Japanese. Thus, in 1943, Lee formed the Communist Friendship Association with Hong Nam Pyo (홍남표), Jung Jae Chol (정재철 鄭載鐵) and Jung Jae Dal (정재달 政在達), and published "Freedom and Independence".

Notwithstanding his claim of 'fake' defection, the matter of fact is that his pro-Japanese activities speak loudly that he was a pro-Japanese and he was more than just pretending to be one. His defection most likely occurred during his 1934 arrest. Sin Young Gap, who met Lee in the jail, stated:

"Lee Sung Yup was already in jail when I was imprisoned. He was one of the inmate trustees - model prisoners - who helped the prison guards and snitched on fellow inmates. The model prisoners were free to roam the prison yards and spared from the hard labor other inmates were forced to perform. My fellow inmates - Kang Byong Do (강병도 姜炳度), Sin Hak Gu (신학우 申學雨), Kim Yong Chan (김용찬) and Park Yong Gyu (박용규) said that Lee was a snitch-traitor.

In those days, intelligentsia inmates worked light manual jobs such as knitting and folding but others worked breaking rocks and other back-breaking heavy labor. But Lee Sung Yup did no manual labor and toured the prison yard."

It is strange that Lee Sung Yup worked for the Japanese - actively - while maintaining contacts with communist and anti-Japanese camps. Why? By 1943, Lee must have realized that Hirohito's days were numbered and he tried to cover up his defection. He had sat on the fence and had himself covered on the both side of the fence.

●Rebuilding the Communist Party of Korea

The communists were the first political group to surface immediately following August 15, 1945. They fought for Korea's independence for many decades and they were quick to regroup and emerge as a powerful political force in liberated Korea.

Some of the communists in Seoul knew about Japan's surrender as early as August 14 and they busied themselves rebuilding party cells smashed by the Japanese police. Thus, Lee Young (이영 李英), Choe Ik Han (최익한), Jung Baik (정백 鄭柏) and some 50 other former socialist activists got together in the evening of the liberation day (August 15, 1945) and announced a new communist party of Korean on the following day. They set up an office in the Jangahn Building and hung a sign.

Lee Sung Yup was elected the senior secretary and Lee Young was elected his deputy. However, they could not agree on party agenda and any detailed party platform. The "Party" was merely a group of former activists who had deserted the anti-Japanese struggle and defected to the Japanese masters. Some of them claimed that their defection was a cover. At any rate, they had no grassroots supporters.

At about this time, Park Hyon Young resurfaced and formed the Committee to Reestablish the Communist Party of Korea and Lee Sung Yup's "Party" rapidly evaporated. Lee and others joined Park's committee - although Lee Young, Choe Ik Han and some others opted to chart their own course. Park Hyon Young stayed at Kim Hae Gyun's house in Seoul, and Lee Sung Yup, Cho Il Myong, Cho Dong Baik and other former members of the Tuesday faction began to gather around Park Hyon Young. Lee Young's group was known as the Jangahn group (장안파 - because of the building they had an office), while Park's group was known as the Resurrection group (재건파).

Trying to avoid factionalism, Park Hyon Young convened a meeting of all communists in Seoul on August 25. The majority of the attendees agreed to form a united party - however, Lee Young and Choe Ik Han could not be persuaded. The Communist Party of Korea was reestablished under Park Hyon Young. The party central committee included former defectors such as Lee Sung Yup, Cho Il Myong and Kwon Oh Jik. Cho Il Myong worked for the Japanese as a Japanese language teacher assigned to brainwash Korean political prisoners. For whatever reason, Park Hyon Young embraced these former defectors and placed them high in the party hierarchy. Those communists who resisted the Japanese pressure to convert - Kim Sam Ryong (김삼룡 金三龍), Lee Ju Wha (이주하 李舟河) and others resented having the defectors in the party.

There were several reasons why pro-Japanese communists like Lee Sung Yup were elected to high positions in the resurrected party. With the exception of a few, virtually all of the communist activists in Korea had been arrested and jailed, then they were freed after renouncing communism. Furthermore, many of them actively, and of their own will, worked for the Japanese. Thus, the domestic communists had much to hide and, after liberation, they helped each other by pretending as if no defection or recanting had ever occurred. There were several factions within the Party after liberation, each faction fighting to grab as many members as they could, and no questions were asked about their days during the Japanese occupation. It was a 'live and let-live' among the former defectors.

Earlier on September 6, Yo Un Hyong (여운형)'s Nationhood Preparation Committee held a national conference attended by 1,300 Koreans who had participated in anti-Japanese activities. The conference passed a resolution proclaiming a national government of the people, by the people and for the people. A 55-member central committee backed by 20 alternates and 12 senior advisors was elected to form the government. Consequently, the Korean People's Republic (조선인민공화국) was proclaimed. Lee Sung Yup was one of the 55 members and appointed the minister of justice of the new government.

On November 24, 1945, the central committee held the first expanded national conference, attended by 35 delegates from the provinces and 17 members of the central committee, including Lee Sung Yup. Lee attended the 3-day national conference of farmers beginning on December 8, where he was elected to the presidium. Lee worked hard in his trade-mark second-hand Japanese soldier's outfit and became Park Hyon Young's right-hand man.

●Defection Once More

Lee's life suffered another setback. In 1946, the Moscow Three-Power conference on Korea determined that the Korean people were incapable of governing themselves and so, Korea needed a trusteeship. While the leftists accepted this plan, the right-wing nationalists were dead against it. The split sharpened the left-right enmity that dated back to the early 1900s. Lee Sung Yup and other communist agitators mounted an all-out campaign to line up the people in support of the trusteeship.

In February 1946, the US Military Government arrested Lee Sung Yup and Cho Il Myong on suspicion of attempted assassination of Rhee Syngman. Of course, there was no basis for this trumped-up charge by the US occupiers. The US Military wanted to get rid of Korean communists. Lee was initially tortured by Korean police in Seoul and then was handed over to an American intelligence service. Lee was turned to spy for the Americans. In 1946, Lt. Gen. Hodge received a list of Korean communist leaders and factions from his political advisor, Lt. Leonard Bertsch. The American strategy was to pit one faction against other factions that would lead to self-immolation. Recruiting Lee and Cho Il Myong for espionage and the conversion of Cho Bong Ahm in May were results of this campaign.

Lee stated: "The American devils hinted that I would be freed if I snitched on my comrades for them. At first, I refused and they threatened to punish me severely. Being of petit bourgeois and a coward, I finally gave in and agreed to work for the Yankees, and I was let go. Lt. Bertsch was my handler and I was ordered to work together with Cho Il Myong as a team."

In those days, the Americans blackmailed those communists who had defected to the Japanese into spying for them. Public disclosure of pro-Japanese activities would have meant the end of their political careers. Lee Sung Yup collected intelligence data and Cho Il Myong catalogued them for their American spy master. They met Lt. Bertsch once in every 2-3 months.

In May 1947, Lee received a secret document from Pyongyang and was on his way to meet Park Hyon Young, when he was arrested by Korean police. While under police custody, he was visited by Harold J. Noble, Lt. Gen. John R. Hodge's political advisor at the time, and Jang Taek Sang (장택상 張澤相), the Seoul city police chief. Lee was told that the Americans wanted to form a government of the right-wing and the centrists, but the communists opposed this plan. The visitors strongly suggested that Lee should join up and that there would be a place for him. Lee agreed and was released. Lee diligently collected intelligence on the communist party affairs, North Korean economy and people, and passed them to his spy masters either orally or written.

In July 1946, the leftists in South Korea wanted to form a united front of all democratic forces, including the communists, the Korean People's Party and the South Korean New Democratic Party. In this way, all leftists would be united and would be more effective. They planned a general strike and a farmers' uprising in October. However, Park Hyon Young wanted the communists to act alone and vetoed the united front, and moreover, Park ordered a general strike in September, thus preempting the October strike planned by other leftists.

Lee Sung Yup did his utmost to sabotage the general strike. For example, the printers' union was to stay on the job so that they could print publications beneficial for the strikers. However, Lee Sung Yup forced the printers to go on strike, thus depriving of the strikers their voice. As the strike progressed, the organizers struck a deal for the printers so that they could return to work, but Lee stepped in and ordered the printers to stay put.

More significantly, the US Military Government in Korea was well informed of the oncoming strike. According to Robinson, an American official, a highly placed informant gave the Americans the plan for the strike well in advance. He did not disclose the informant's name, but it was most likely Lee Sung Yup.

In October 1946, Park Hyong Young fled to North Korea and Lee Sung Up became the de facto leader of the communist party in South Korea. Originally, Park's designated heir was Lee Ju Ha, who was arrested in September. Next in line was Ki Hyon Sun, but Ki did not get along with the party cadres and Lee Sung Yup got the job. Thus, the communist party of South Korea was headed by an American spy. Under Lee's leadership, the communists mounted numerous strikes and armed collisions, which eventually led to its demise, after so many party stalwarts were killed or jailed for precious little to show for.

●"Defection" to North and the Park-Lee Plot

In July 1948, Park Hyon Young ordered Lee to come to North Korea in preparation for the Haeju National Leadership Conference. In order to build up his credentials, he joined a partisan group at Mt. Ohdae before crossing the 38th via Kangrung and Yangyang. In response to the unilateral government in South Korea, a people's republic was established in Pyongyang in September 1948. Lee Sung Yup was appointed to Minister of Justice. Thus an American spy wiggled his way into the top echelon of North Korea. Ahn Young Dal was Lee's primary liaison with the Americans.

Lee was the de facto boss of the Communist Party of South Korea, but his real intent was to destroy it. In June 1949, Rhee Syngman formed the National Reconciliation League (국민보도연맹), whose main mission was to persuade communists to renounce their ideology. The communist party leadership was concerned about party members succumbing to the League's propaganda and wanted to infiltrate and take control of the League. However, Park Hyong Young and Lee Sung Yup vetoed the idea, claiming that the party members were solid and few would defect. The fact of the matter is that some 300,000 party members left the party from October 1, 1949 to November 30th of the year - in the short span of two months.

Lee and Park wrecked communist guerrillas in South Korea. After the Yosu-Sunchun mutiny in October 1948, the communist party intensified partisan warfare on Cheju Island, Honam and Youngnam regions. Early in 1949, the communist party of North Korea determined that small-unit partisans would be the most effective in South Korea; however, Park and Lee went in the opposite direction and formed large units in frontal confrontations, which had led to the virtual extermination of the partisans. In spite of this failure, Lee and Park reported spectacular growth and victories - all of which were fabricated.

Lee and Park were directly responsible for the destruction of the party leadership in Seoul. In March 1950, Kim Sam Ryong and Lee Ju Ha, the two key leaders in Seoul, were betrayed by two turncoats - Ahn Young Dal and Cho Young Bok (조용복 趙鏞福). A month later, the two men and a police detective Baik Hyon Bok faked a getaway to North Korea. They were met by Lee Sung Yup, who told them to say that Kim Sam Ryong and Lee Ju Ha were betrayed by their aid, Kim Hyong Wook (김형육 金炯六). Lee sent Ahn back to Seoul with a wireless radio. Cho Young Bok and Baik Hyong Bok were placed in key security organs that handled communist agents in South Korea.

In June 1950, Seoul was occupied by the communist forces and communists inmates were freed. They told the occupation authority how Ahn Young Dal betrayed Kim Sam Ryong and Lee Ha Ju, upon which Lee had Ahn Young Dal murdered - dead man no speak. Lee Sung Yup came to Seoul as the mayor and formed a secret agency to kill off communists who knew about his duplicity. North Korean security agents were able to piece together the whole truth about Lee Sung Yup, but their reports were lost when Seoul was retaken. Thus, the Inchon Landing saved Lee's neck - for the time being.

Lee had another close call a few month before the Korean War started. In April 1949, Alice Hyun and Lee Sa Min, who previously were 'exiled' to Prague, Czechoslovakia, ostensibly for their communist activities in the United States, were arrested in Moscow for espionage. Alice's father, Rev. Hyun Soon, was a noted Korean nationalist leader; she had served with the US military during WWII and worked in Seoul in the 1940's for the US CICK (Civilian Information Control). She opened letters and wiretapped phone conversations for the Americans.

Alice Hyun grew up in Shanghai and met Park Hyong Young and Yo Ung Young there, and it was easy for her to get these leaders' confidence in Seoul. Alice was sent to North Korea using a cover story of being exiled for sedition in the US. Alice worked with Lee and Lee Kang Guk for about a yearn in Pyongyang. Alice confessed and divulged her secret mission, implicating Lee. Park Hyon Young, vice premier and foreign minister, unequivocally vouched for Lee and the matter was dropped.

In August 1951, the South Liaison Bureau was formed to coordinate communist activities in South Korea, and Park's associates from South Korea held key positions in it. North Korean security agents at last picked up the cold trail left in Seoul and placed agents disguised as cooks and drivers. Lee and associates enjoyed wild drinking parties and were less careful with what they said. The security agents were able to father enough hard evidence to arrest and charge Lee and associates with sedition and espionage. In the early morning of March 5, 1953, Lim Wha, Cho Il Myong, Lee Sung Yup and other plotters were arrested. By April, some 40 communists from South Korea were picked up.

●Last Day of the Turncoats

The investigation into the past activities of Lee and company lasted about three months; former associates of these turncoats stepped forward and provided incrimination evidence. In July 1953, Pyongyang announced the treason plot of the southern communist leaders.

Lee was found guilty of: He was the ring leader; he was recruited by the US intelligence in February 1946 and conducted espionage since; he deliberately sabotaged communist movements in South Korea; he engineered the arrest of Kim Sam Ryong and Lee Ju Ha; in July 1950, Lee was ordered by Noble to form an armed group to overthrow the government of North Korea.

The trial lasted for three days and on August 6, Lee Sung Yup, Cho Il Myong and ten others were sentenced to death. They were executed later in that month.