Kim Gu Claimed to Be a 'Serial Killer,' Not an Independence Activist

Dr. Jeong An-gi added that this figure has continued to rise since the initial count.

Dr. Jeong An-gi explained that he tallied the 100 people Kim Gu killed by dividing them into three categories: 'anti-Japanese terror,' 'spy terror,' and 'rival terror.' He said spy terror accounted for the largest share.

The host argued that Kim Gu killed people by attaching the 'pro-Japanese' label regardless of whether they were actually spies. He added that young overseas students in their teens to thirties were the main targets.

Dr. Jeong An-gi said that when overseas students visited the Provisional Government in Shanghai, they were disappointed by the outdated attitudes of the older officials. He explained that a class-based mindset that still divided yangban and commoners, along with regional sentiment, remained within the Provisional Government, causing serious conflict with younger members that led to killings.

Dr. Jeong An-gi claimed that Kim Gu took critical young men outside Shanghai, strangled them, broke their limbs and waist, stuffed the bodies into sacks, and dumped them in sewers or wells. He said this practice was called by the slang 'packing salted cabbage,' and that 29 bodies were actually found in a well within the French Concession.

Dr. Jeong An-gi argued that the Chihapo incident, known as a badge of honor for Kim Gu's independence work, was in fact the 'Jipo Murder and Robbery Incident.' He said the victim was not Japanese officer Sugita Chōsuke, who had killed Queen Min, but a civilian traveling medicine seller, and classified it as a robbery-murder for money.

Dr. Jeong An-gi said the money Kim Gu seized in the Chihapo incident, 'Cheonyang,' weighed about 240 kg, or 2.4 tons. He said Kim Gu entrusted 800 yang to Lee Ha-bo, the owner of the Chihapo inn, in exchange for a promissory note, which he argued contradicts both the donation purpose and the account in the Baekbeom Diary, and that he bought a donkey with the remaining 100 yang to travel.

He said the body was then dumped into the Daedong River, and that such brutal accounts were edited out of the popular edition of the Baekbeom Diary.

He assessed that Kim Gu must have committed many killings before that and had a psychology that enjoyed killing. He added that the brutal records stated in the main text of the Baekbeom Diary support this claim.

He said Kim Gu entrusted the disposal of the body to a man named Yu Jin-dong, who systematically processed the corpse by separating flesh from bone.

He explained that Ok did not provide funds to the Provisional Government faction, which earned him Kim Gu's enmity, and that his wealth from acquiring Chinese nationality and trade with Germany and the United States deepened the conflict with Kim Gu. The host added that Ok appears to have been assassinated by Kim Gu and the Provisional Government side after being labeled a pro-Japanese collaborator.