page_title: Hero of the Republic
section_title: Recipients
hierarchical_section_title: Hero of the Republic / Recipients
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Nordkorea 2015 - Pjöngjang - Friedhof der Märtyrer
context_page_description: Hero of the Republic is a North Korean honorific title. It was created on 30 June 1950 as Hero of the Korean People's Republic. It was the first title created in the country. Despite having been created just five days after the Korean War broke out, the connection seems incidental. 533 people were awarded Hero of the Republic during the war, and many more since then.
  Since there is no agreed upon order of precedence of North Korean titles, orders, and medals, it is not possible to definitively establish the rank of Hero of the Republic. According to Yonhap's North Korea Handbook, Hero of the Republic ranks below the Order of Kim Il-sung but above the Hero of Labor. Martin Weiser, however, ranks Hero of Labor the highest.
context_section_description: Kim Chol-man (September 1968)
  Choe Ryong-hae (1993)
  Lee Soo-bok
  Ri Kyong-sim (May 2013)
  Submarine captain, co-captain, chief engineer, and boatswain responsible for the ROKS Cheonan sinking (October 2010)
  Choe Hyon
  Kim Jong-suk (posthumous)
  Jong Song-ok
  Lee Kwon-mu
  Kim Il-sung(thrice: 28 July 1953, 1972, 1982)
  Kim Jong-il (four times: 1975, 1982, 1992, and 2011)
  Peng Dehuai
  Mao Anying (posthumous)
  Wu Xianhua (posthumous)
  Xu Jiayou (posthumous)
  Li Jiafa (posthumous)
  Josip Broz Tito (25 August 1977)
  Fidel Castro (March 1986)
  Pol Pot
  Ziaur Rahman, President of Bangladesh
  Vladimir Podolkhov
caption: Relief depicting the award at Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery
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