Park Hon-young

Pak Hon-yong (Korean: 박헌영; Hanja: 朴憲永; 28 May 1900 – 18 December 1955), courtesy name Togyong (덕영), was a Korean independence activist, politician, philosopher, and Communist activist, and one of the main leaders of the Korean Communist movement during Japan's colonial rule (1910–1945). During the Japanese occupation of Korea, he tried to organize the Korean Communist Party. When the Japanese authorities cracked down on the party, he went into hiding.

After Korea's liberation in August 1945, he set up the Communist Party of Korea in the south, but, under pressure from American authorities, he moved to North Korea (then People's Committee of North Korea) in April 1948. Shortly thereafter, he attended a meeting with Kim Ku and Kim Kyu-sik on the subject of Korean reunification. Pak collaborated with Kim Il Sung, founder of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, during the Korean War.

In 1955, on account of the failure of the war to unify the Korean Peninsula, North Korean authorities sentenced him to forfeiture of all property, and death. Although the Soviet Union and China tried to dissuade Kim Il Sung from executing Pak, Pak was eventually executed for the fabricated accusation of being an American spy.