Ke Pauk
Cambodian politician (1934-2002)
Ke Pauk (Khmer: កែ ពក, 1935 – 15 February 2002), also known as Kae Pok, was one of the senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge.
Early life
He was born Ke Vin (Khmer: កែ វិន) in Chhouk Ksach Village, Chhouk Ksach Sub-district, Baray District, Kampong Thom Province in 1935.
In 1949, following a raid on his village by French forces, Pauk joined the Khmer Issarak independence movement. In 1954, following the Geneva Conference and Cambodia's independence from France, Pauk emerged from the forest and was soon arrested. Sentenced to six years in prison he served time in prisons in Phnom Penh and Kampong Thom. However, after spending only three years in prison, Pauk was released.
After his release in 1957, Pauk returned to Chhouk Ksach and married Soeun. Together they were to have six children. His biography states that he was contacted at this time by Party Secretary Siv Heng and asked to rejoin the movement. Pauk joined the nascent Cambodian Communist movement in Svay Teab, Chamkar Leu District, Kampong Cham.
“Ke Pauk” enters the record as cambodian politician (1934-2002). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pauk, Cambodian and politician can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Ke Pauk” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Pauk, Cambodian and politician provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q919785. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1935, 2002, 1949 and 1954.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Ke Pauk” 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.