Chough Pyung-ok

Chough Pyung-ok combined independence activism, scholarship, and party politics. Born in Cheonan in 1894, he studied in the United States, participated in the 1919 Korean congress in Philadelphia, and earned a Columbia doctorate in 1925. Back in Korea, he taught at Yonhi, joined the Shinganhoe movement, and suffered imprisonment under Japanese rule. After liberation, he helped found the Korea Democratic Party and headed the police under the American military government. ¹

As Syngman Rhee's special representative in Washington in September 1948, Chough asked the United States to keep troops in Korea while strengthening Korean forces. He warned that withdrawal could invite attack from the north and sought economic assistance for power and light industry. He also discussed securing United Nations recognition before traveling to Paris with the Korean delegation. ²

On a January 1949 farewell call, Chough welcomed international recognition but expressed fear that a Communist victory in China would leave Korea encircled. American official W. Walton Butterworth urged reform to retain popular support; Chough argued that immediate survival constrained the government's choices. ³

Chough later broke with Rhee and became a leading opposition politician. As interior minister during the Korean War, he resigned in 1951 over responsibility for the Geochang massacre. He returned to parliament, helped establish the Democratic Party in 1955, and became its presidential candidate. He died at Walter Reed in Washington in February 1960, before the election. ¹