Background
Mr. Kimm was born in Busan, Pusan-jikhalsi, Republic of Korea, on January 29, 1881. He naturalized as a Chinese citizen in Zhangjiakou in January 1918.
Mr. Kimm was born in Busan, Pusan-jikhalsi, Republic of Korea, on January 29, 1881. He naturalized as a Chinese citizen in Zhangjiakou in January 1918.
Orphaned at an early age, Kimm Kiusic studied with American missionary H.G. Underwood starting from the age of 6, taking the Christian name "Johann." He later traveled to the United States, receiving a bachelor's degree from Roanoke College in 1903 and a master's degree in English literature from Princeton University the following year. An Honorary Doctor of Law degree was conferred upon him by Roanoke College in 1923 at the 20th re-union of his class.
After return to Korea in 1904, he was engaged in religious and educational work. Finding his work difficult after Korea's annexation by Japan, he gave up all his interests and activities in his homeland and decided to devote his life and energy in the movement for the restoration of Korea's Independence, coming away to China and living a self-exiled life since the spring of 1913.
After his arrival in China, besides becoming more directly in touch with the Korean Revolutionary workers outside of his fatherland, he was closely allied with the work of the Chinese revolutionary leaders, such as Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Gen. Huang Hsing and particularly, Gen. Chen Chi-mei. Kimm Kiusic participated in China's Second Revolution against Yuan Shikai. He went to Urga in 1914 with several Korean leaders in order to find there a suitable place for the training of military officers for the future Korean Independence Army.
Mr. Kimm returned to Zhangjiakou in 1916 and joined the Zhangjiakou Office of Andersen, Meyer and Co., as manager of the Office. He served as the Chief Korean Delegate to present Korea's Case before the Peace Conference in Paris in 1919, which gesture caused the March 1st Uprising of passive resistance against the Japanese oppression and positive general movement for the independence of Korea. When the First Korean Provisional Government was organised in Korea, he was made its Minister for Foreign Affairs. Later Kimm Kiusic became Minister of Education upon its re-establishment in Shanghai, China.
After winding up his work in Paris, he went to the United States and helped organize and become chairman of the Korean Commission to Europe and America with Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Mr. Kimm represented Korea at the Far Eastern Revolutionary Congress held in Moscow in 1922. He was again in Siberia in 1923-1924 at the invitation of the Soviet Authorities and the Korean revolutionaries there. Kimm Kiusic was engaged in educational work in China since then, at different times as professor of Fudan University and President of Williams' College in S'hai, professor of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong, professor of English and concurrently English secretary at Tianjin University in Tianjin since January, 1929.
He was again in America as the representative of the Sino-Korean People's League to bring about among overseas Chinese and Koreans better understanding and more active coopration in their joint struggle against Japanese aggression in the Far East and to the American public the true situation of the Far East and its bearing on world peace.
After the liberation of Korea in 1945, he returned to his homeland to participate in the formation of a newly independent state, which was now under the rule of the United States Army Military Government in Korea in the south and the Soviet Civil Authority in the North. Kimm Kiusic was favored by the American occupation leader John R. Hodge, who saw him and Lyuh Woon-Hyung as moderate leaders on the right and left, respectively. In September 1947, the United States, Lee Seung Man (also known as Syngman Rhee) et al. pushed to move the Korean question to the newly created United Nations, which quickly the voted to allow for elections in the south despite the objections of southern nationalists such as Kim and Kim Gu as well as from the north's Interim People's Committee, who were opposed because of the non-participation of the North.
After failed efforts to broker reunification in that year, he retired from politics. After the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, he was kidnapped and taken to the North. Mr. Kimm eportedly died near Manpo in the far north on December 10.
Kimm Kiusic was widely-known as a linguist and educationalist, having scholarly knowledge of English besides his mother tongue and fluency in Chinese, Russian and French, also speaking German, Japanese and Mongolian. He was a gifted speaker, a brilliant writer and above all an untiring worker with a charming and magnetic personality.
