Kim Kyu-Sik, also spelled Kimm Giusic and Kimm Kiusic, was a Korean politician and academic during the Korean independence movement and a leader of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. Kim served in various roles in the provisional government, including as foreign minister, ambassador, education minister and finally as the vice president from 1940 until the provisional government's dissolution on March 3, 1947. Kim's nicknames included Yoosa, Kummun, KimSung, and JukJeok.
Life and career
Early life
Kim was born in Dongnae, now part of modern-day Busan. Orphaned at an early age, Kim 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. In 1905 Kim returned to Korea, teaching widely. Following the 1910 Japanese annexation of Korea Kim fled to China in 1913.
In 1919 Kim traveled to Paris for the Paris Peace Conference to lobby for Korean independence from Japan. He was sent by Lyuh Woon-Hyung and Chang Duk-soo, who had organized Sinhan Cheongnyeondang in Shanghaiin the summer of 1919. His efforts in Paris proved to be futile. The Korean National Revolutionary Party was formed in Shanghai in 1935 through a grouping of nationalist Korean parties. Organizers were Kim Kyu-sik, Kim Won-bong and Cho Soang. Kim was a leading member of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea based in Shanghai, becoming the Vice-President. He was fluent in English and taught English to the Provisional Government's members.
After Korean Liberation
After the post World War II liberation of Korea in 1945, he returned to his homeland to join in the formation of a newly independent state, which was then under the rule of the United States Army Military Government in Korea in the south and the Soviet Civil Authority in the north. Kim 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 and Lee Seung Man et al. pushed to move the Korean question to the newly created United Nations, which 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.
