Born in North Hamgyong Province, he graduated from Jungdong Middle School in Seoul. He later moved to China and graduated from Sun Yat-sen University in 1928. He joined the Korean Independence League—organized in Yan'an by figures such as Kim Tu-bong and Ch'oe Ch'angik—[dubious–discuss]and engaged in the communist movement while serving as an executive of the league in East Manchuria. He assassinated Jo Si-je, the son of Jo So-ang, who had been dispatched to Manchuria on a special mission by the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea.
He participated in the Korean Volunteer Corps, founded in October 1938. In late 1939, he became the leader of the KVC's mobile propaganda unit, operating in the Fifth War Zone of Hubei Province and the Xi'an area. In the summer of 1941, he moved to the base of the Eighth Route Army in North China; in July 1942, he was elected as a member of the Central Executive Committee of the North China Korean Independence League and as the political commissar for the North China detachment of the Korean Volunteer Army. From early 1944, he served as the head of propaganda for the "Enemy Zone Operations Team" of the North China Korean Independence League.
After Liberation
Following the liberation of Korea on August 15, 1945, he returned to North Korea. He served as the Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers' Party of North Korea in 1946 and as the principal of the Sadong Cadre School in 1947. Between 1946 and 1947, he collaborated with Han Jae-dok[ko] to spearhead a campaign promoting Kim Il-sung as a national leader. In 1946 he appeared in Our Construction film.
He held key positions, including Minister of Education and Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in 1956, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly in 1957, and a member of the Standing Committee of the Workers' Party Central Committee in 1958.
In 1966, he became a vice chairman and member of the 4th Politburo of the 4th Central Committee,[dubious–discuss] but his activities were halted. That May, he was purged for engaging in propaganda and agitation activities deemed contrary to the Juche ideology.
