Chu Ki-Chol

Chu Ki-Chol (born 1897, Changwon, Korea—died April 21, 1944, Korea) was a Korean Presbyterian minister who suffered martyrdom because of his opposition to Japanese demands that Christians pay reverence at Shintō shrines. The demand was one of many requirements imposed by Japan during its occupation of Korea (1905–45) to instill obedience and supplant Korean cultural ways with those of the Japanese.

Chu participated in the March First independence movement (1919). Ordained a minister in 1926, he served as a pastor in churches in Busan and Masan (both now in South Korea), and he was already well known for his zeal and faith when he took charge of the Sanchŏnghyŏn (Sanjeonghyeon, or Sanjunghyun) church in Pyongyang (now the capital of North Korea) in 1937. After Chu’s repeated opposition to worship at Shintō shrines and his denunciation of it as idolatry, in February 1938 he was arrested and imprisoned, where he was tortured before his release several months later. The Pyongyang Presbytery, unable to withstand Japanese pressure against Chu’s views, removed him from his ministerial office.

Chu was imprisoned several more times prior to his death, the final time in 1940. In all, he served more than five years in prison; the beatings and torture he received left him ill and weak, and he died in a prison hospital ward. His last sermon, entitled “Readiness to Die,” shows that his martyrdom was motivated not by patriotic considerations but by his fundamentalist faith, which could not tolerate the worship of images. After his death, the Japanese government closed down Sanchŏnghyŏn church. A memorial center devoted to Chu’s life and work stands in his hometown of Changwon, South Gyeongsang province, South Korea.