Paik Sun Yup

General Paik Sun Yup (born 1920) is a Korean military officer of Manchukuo and South Korea. He is known for his service during the Korean War.

He was born in Kangso-gun, South Pyongan (modern-day Nampo) in 1920. His family soon moved to Pyongyang and he graduated Pyongyang Normal School in 1939. Instead of getting into teaching, he entered Mukden Military Academy of Manchukuo. After graduation, he engaged in subduing communist guerrillas in Chientao Province (eastern Manchuria). He joined the Japanese campaign on northern China for ten months from 1944 to 45.

After the end of World War II he returned to Pyongyang but in December 1945 fled south since rising communists threatened his safety. In South Korea, he was commisssioned a First Lieutenant in the Constabulary, the predecessor of the ROK Army. He was committed to build the army, crush comminist guerrillas, and purge the army of leftists.

When the Korean War was broke out on June 25, 1950, he was assigned to defend Seoul as the 1st Infantry Division. He finally retreated to Gyeongsangdo but made an important contribution to the defense of the Pusan Perimeter, especially to the victory at the village of Dabudong.

On the move north, his 1st Division under the U.S. I Corps became the first to enter Pyongyang on October 19. He was one of first officers who realized the Chinese entry into the war. He assumed the defense of northwestern Korea but was plagued by outnumbered Chinese army.

In April 1951 he was placed in command of the ROK I Corps in charge of eastern Korea. He soon found the ROK army insufficiently trained. The army took intensive training while the battle line was fixed. In July he was elected to represent the ROK military at the Kaesong Truce Talk but failed to attain results.

In November, the Task Force Paik was set up to destroy communist guerrillas on Jiri-san. The campaign was successfully finished in March 1952. In recognition of the success, he was promoted to Lieutenant General and the Task Force Paik was transformed to the new ROK II Corps. Then he was appointed to Army Chief of Staff in July 1952. He devoted himself in building up the ROK army. In January 1953 he became the first full general in the ROK army. He filled successively the commander of the First Field Army, the Army Chief of Staf, and the Chairman for the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff until his retirement from the army in May 1960.

He was appointed to ambassador to the Republic of China on Taiwan in 1965, France in 1961, and Canada in 1965. From 1969 to 71, he assumed the Minister of Transportation and launched the construction of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway. In 1970 he faced the hijacking of a JAL plane at Gimpo Airport by Japanese Red Army. He served as the presidents of two national policy companies in sequence. He participated in the construction of the War Memorial at Yongsan, which opened in 1990.