玄楯에게 ‘秘傳’된 임시정부의 실체와 대한공화국임시정부

Abstract

Among the provisional governments which were established and proclaimed at home and abroad after the Samil Korean Independence Movement, the Provisional Government of the Korean Republic has been known as the provisional government organized in the Russian Far Eastern area or Gando and existed only in the Korean society in America, however, the Provisional Government of the Korean Republic proved to be an unsubstantial government resulting from an erroneous English telegram sent to Gookminhoi (National Congress: an organization for Korea’s independence movement) in Hawaii by Hyeon Soon on the 29th of March, 1919. But questions remain as to from what Hyeon Soon’s mistake resulted and how the unsubstantial Provisional Government of the Korean Republic existed for a considerable period of time as the only provisional government. In the article I tried to disclose the reality of such questions. The substance of the provisional government which Hyeon Soon imparted to the Korean society in America by mistake was the draft of the provisional government which Bong-Soo Lee secretly had delivered to Hyeon Soon. Bong-Soo Lee, a believer in the Cheondo religion and a contact coming and going to Shanghai and Seoul, was a member of the headquarters of the Gyeongseong Independence Corps at that time which was the main organizer of the Shinhanmingook government (the government of the New Korean Republic). He secretly imparted the draft to Hyeon Soon, and it was composed of the draft which was discussed and devised at the headquarters of the Gyeongseong Independence Corps on the basis of the draft of the provisional government with the presidential system that the Cheondo religion side was drawing. As the issue of the establishment of the provisional government in Shanghai took concrete shape at the end of March, Hyeon Soon imparted information of the draft mentioned above to the Korean society in America and tried to make it the real one. As the provisional government was established in Shanghai on the 11th of April, he informed at once that his previous telegram was his mistake. But as Syngman Rhee who had acted like the premier of the Provisional Government of the Korean Republic kept quiet about making it public in Shinhanminbo (a newspaper), the Provisional Government of the Korean Republic kept existing as the only government of Korea. The cause of confusion about the provisional government in the Korean society in America was due to the lack of true information, and above all, covering up miscommunicated information. Furthermore, as Syngman Rhee, feeling uneasy about the issue of mandate, obtained a document related to the Hanseong Government at the end of May, 1919 and posed as its governor or president, there started political turmoil of the existence of the two provisional governments and a full-scale feud with the Provisional Government in Shanghai.