Lyuh Woon-hyung (Korean: 여운형; Hanja: 呂運亨; 25 May 1886 – 19 July 1947), also known by his art name Mongyang (몽양; 夢陽), was a Korean independence activist and reunification activist.
Lyuh was a prominent figure in the Korean Provisional Government (KPG) and participated in the creation of the February 8 Declaration of Independence during the Japanese colonial period. He is rare among politicians in modern Korean history for being revered in both South and North Korea.
Lyuh was born in 1886 in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, Joseon. He was born into the Hamyang Yeo clan to father Yŏ Chŏng-hyŏn (여정현; 呂鼎鉉). At around age 14, he married Yu Se-yŏng (유세영; 柳世永), but she died, and he remarried to Jin Sang-ha (진상하; 陳相夏).
In 1900, Lyuh enrolled in the Western-style Pai Chai School. Soon afterwards, he switched to studying at the Hŭnghwa School and Umu School (우무학당; 郵務學堂). In 1907, he became involved in the National Debt Repayment Movement, part of the Korean independence movement. Also around then, he became a Protestant and became associated with the American missionary Charles Allen Clark. Through his relationship with Clark and Christianity, he became active in intellectual circles in Korea of the time.
With assistance with Clark, he found the Kidok Kwangdong School in 1909. In 1910, Lyuh dramatically parted from Korean tradition by freeing slaves owned by his household. In 1911, Lyuh enrolled in Pyongyang Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
In 1914, Lyuh went to China, where he studied English literature at a university in Nanjing. In 1917, he moved to Shanghai. While in China, he became significantly involved in the Korean independence movement. In 1918, he established what eventually became the Shanghai Korean People's Association. That year, he also led the New Korean Youth League.
In 1919, Lyuh participated in the creation of the February 8 Declaration of Independence in Tokyo. This declaration is considered a direct precursor to the Korean Declaration of Independence which began the landmark March First Movement protests in Korea. Concurrently, he participated in efforts to send Korean representatives to the 1919–1920 Paris Peace Conference, in hopes that they could advocate for Korean independence there.
In April 1919, Lyuh became one of the founders of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. He would serve in a variety of roles in the government, such as being a member of the organization's Legislative Assembly. He also established a Korean school called Insŏng School in Shanghai around this time. That year, he also visited Japan and met with several high-ranking Japanese politicians, during which he advocated for Korea's independence.
In 1920, he joined the Korean Communist Party and became active in its Shanghai and Irkutsk chapters. In 1922, he attended the Congress of the Peoples of the East in Moscow. In Moscow, he met with Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin. That year, he also organized the Korean Veterans Association alongside Kim Ku and Son Jŏng-do. In 1925, at the recommendation of Sun Yat-sen, he joined the Chinese Nationalist Party and worked to improve Sino-Korean ties. In 1929, he was arrested by Japanese authorities in Shanghai and sentenced to three years in prison.
In 1932, he was released from prison. In 1933, he became the head of the Chŏson Chungang Ilbo newspaper. In 1934, he became head of the Joseon Sports Council. In 1936, he was forced by Japanese authorities to step down from his position at the newspaper, after he became involved in the Sohn Kee-chung uniform scandal in which Korean newspapers erased the Japanese flag from images of Sohn, the first ethnic Korean to win an Olympic gold medal. In 1942, he was arrested on charges of violating the Peace Preservation Law and sentenced to a year in prison and three years of probation.
In 1944, in anticipation of Japan's defeat in World War II, Lyuh organized the secret Korean National Establishment Committee and served as its chairman. The organization expanded across Korea and allied itself with other Korean nationalist organizations.
Just before the surrender of Japan in August 1945, the Japanese official Endo Ryusaku established contact with Lyuh and agreed to the release of prisoners and Japanese withdrawal from Korea. On the 17 August, Lyuh established the Committee for Preparation of Korean Independence which created over 140 subsections in North and South Korea during the remainder of that month.
On 6 September 1945, Lyuh proclaimed the foundation of the People's Republic of Korea with Lyuh as Chairman of the National People's Representative Conference. However, when the United States landed on the Korean Peninsula two days later, General Hodge did not recognize the government. In October, Lyuh stepped down under pressure from the United States Military Government, and organized the People's Party of Korea, becoming its chairman. In the ensuing months of the anti-trusteeship movement and other political developments, Lyuh took a line of action in concert with the communists.
When a movement to unify the political left and the political right arose in May 1946, Lyuh represented the center-left. However, Lyuh's political stance was attacked by both the extreme right and the extreme left, and his efforts to pursue a centrist position became increasingly untenable in the midst of the turbulent political milieu.
On 19 July 1947, Lyuh was assassinated in Seoul by a 19-year-old man named Han Chi-geun, who fled from North Korea and was an active member of a right-wing terrorist group, the White Shirts Society. Lyuh's death was widely mourned.
1894 – Moved to Danyang, Chungcheongbuk-do and returned to Myogok after two years.
1900 – Enrolled in the Baejae School
1901 – Transferred to Heung-hwa School (흥화학교).