My name is Daniel. I was an English teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and now I am a writer and scholar who has written a couple of books including South Korea: Our Story by Daniel Nardini.

                     In part I, a explained why former North Korean ruler Kim Il-sung could not have had a vast army under his command to "liberate" the northern half of Korea. So if he did not have such a large guerrilla army, then what did happen? In too many ways the truth remains very murky when talking about Kim Il-sung. What we do know is that he joined the Chinese Communist Party and was a minor commander in the CCP's Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army that operated in Manchuria (nothing in Korea itself). The Northeast anti-Japanese United Army was mostly Chinese, although there were many ethnic Koreans in it. This guerrilla army was commanded by a Chinese Communist named Zhao Shangzhi. Kim Il-sung commanded a force of maybe 150 to 200 men, and his greatest achievement was the temporary seizure of Bochonbo in Korea in 1939. However, he was not involved in any important battles, and with the Japanese anti-guerrilla campaign launched between 1940 to 1942, Kim Il-sung fled to the Soviet Union in 1940. From 1940 to 1945, Kim Il-sung just stayed put in the Soviet Union. The best known Korean Communist resister who remained in Korea itself was Pak Hong-yong. He organized underground Communist cells in Korea, and they would come out of hiding in 1945 with the surrender of Japan. Because Pak Hon-yong was a wanted man, he had to remain in hiding from the Japanese until the Japanese surrender. But by and large, the Japanese were pretty successful in controlling Korea until the end of World War II.