Kim Won-gyun
North Korean composer of the national anthem (1917–2002)
Kim Won-gyun (Korean: 김원균; 2 January 1917 – 5 April 2002) was a North Korean composer and politician. He is considered one of the most prominent, if not the most celebrated, composer of North Korea. He composed "Aegukka" — the national anthem of the country — and "Song of General Kim Il Sung", in addition to revolutionary operas.
Career
In his youth, Kim Won-gyun attended high school but dropped out after three grades. After the liberation of Korea, he wrote his first composition: "March of Korea". Before his musical career, Kim had been only "a farmer who just happened to write [the] 'Song of General Kim Il Sung'". That was in 1946, very early into the cult of personality of Kim Il Sung; the song was the first work of art that verifiably mentions Kim Il Sung, then leader of Workers' Party of North Korea, one of precursors of WPK. After the success of the song, he was asked to compose "Aegukka". As a musician, he was initially self-taught but went to Moscow in order to study there. At some point he attended a music school in Japan. By 1947, when "Aegukka" was adapted as the national anthem of Provisional People's Committee of North Korea, he had risen in status.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Kim Won-gyun” as north Korean composer of the national anthem (1917–2002). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as north Korean composer of the national anthem (1917–2002). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3196825. VIAF identifies the subject as 66889640. The Library of Congress control number is nr94014525. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1917, 2002, 1946 and 1947.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kim Won-gyun” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.