page_title: Kang Kon
section_title: Pre-Korean War
hierarchical_section_title: Kang Kon / Biography / Pre-Korean War
caption_attribution_description: English: DPRK 2nd Head Choi Yond-kun and 3rd Head Kim Il-Sung, General Kim Chaek, Kim Il, Kang Gun 한국어: 최용건 위원장, 김책 부수상, 김일, 김일성 주석, 강건 장군 순
context_page_description: Kang Kon was a Korean military leader active in Manchuria and the Korean peninsula as well as politician during the years leading up to the Korean War and during the first stages of the Korean War in 1950.
context_section_description: Like many of the others who served in high ranking positions under Kim Il Sung, Kang had served with Kim in Manchuria fighting against the Japanese. While in Manchuria he organized and commanded the Kiring peace Preservation Army. Even though Kang (and other Koreans fighting in Manchuria) had better military credentials than Kim, Kim was encouraged to take the reins of the new communist country because of ability to cultivate the Russians.
  In the summer of 1946, Kang returned from Soviet Russia to North Korea to help establish the Korean People’s Army and by 1948 he was appointed the Chief of the General Staff Department, and was an important figure in the planning of the South Korean invasion with the help of Russian war strategists and was selected to lead the invasion. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and a member of the Supreme People's Assembly.
  Kang was known as a ruthless soldier, as was reflected in the armies he commanded; they were aggressive, insensitive to risk, and eager for a victory by August 15, as Kim Il Sung demanded.
caption: Choe Yong-gon, Kim Chaek, Kim Il, and Kang Kon who received the first bark gun produced in Pyongyang
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