P’yŏngan-namdo
In 1944, at the age of 19, Chae was conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army and participated in training. After training, he was stationed at South Pyongan Province. Following the independence of Korea in 1945, he attended and graduated from Pyongyang Normal School. Chae was appointed as a teacher to Deokhae Elementary School in Yonggang, South Pyongan Province. Afterwards, he taught at Jinnampo Elementary School, but following the Soviet occupation of the northern part of Korean Peninsula, Chae met Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s founder, at the opening ceremony of the Pyongyang Institute, a military and political academy. Kim proposed that he and Chae work together, though Chae managed to decline his offer.