Kim Hong-il (general)
Kim Hong-il (23 September 1898 – 8 August 1980) was a Korean independence activist and a general of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Korean War, who later became a diplomat and politician in South Korea. Born in North Pyongan, he did his early schooling in China and Korea, and had a brief career as a teacher before his connections with the nascent Korean independence movement led to his imprisonment. He fled into exile in China in 1918, and served in the Kuomintang's National Revolutionary Army from 1926 to 1948, following which he moved to the newly-independent South Korea to join the Republic of Korea Army. He commanded South Korea's I Corps during the first year of the Korean War, and was then sent to Taipei as South Korea's ambassador to the Republic of China, which by then had retreated to Taiwan. His assignment there ultimately lasted nine years. He returned to South Korea in 1960 following the April Revolution which ended the rule of Syngman Rhee, and served briefly as Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Park Chung-hee junta. He ran for the National Assembly, first unsuccessfully in 1960 and 1963, and was then elected in 1967 and became a major figure in the opposition New Democratic Party.
Kim Chang-wan
Kim Chang-wan, along with his younger brothers Kim Chang-hoon and Kim Chang-ik, began composing music during their mid-teens, and formed the band Mui when they were college students. After Kim Chang-wan graduated in 1975 from Seoul National University (with a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Studies, major in Natural Fiber), they went professional and changed their band's name to Sanulrim (meaning "Mountain Echo"). With Kim Chang-wan as lead vocalist and guitarist, Kim Chang-hoon on rhythm guitar, bass and keyboards, and Kim Chang-ik on drums, they released their first album "What, Already?" in 1977, which became a critical and commercial success. The band's psychedelic rock/hard rock sound (reminiscent of the Sex Pistols) was music Koreans hadn't heard before, and Sanulrim revitalized the Korean music scene, which was currently devastated after several major musicians were arrested for marijuana possession in the 1970s. From 1977 to 1984, they released more than 10 albums and became one of the most influential and beloved figures in the Korean rock music scene. With the K-pop retrospective boom during the 1990s, all of their albums were reissued and a tribute album was released. They held a 30th anniversary concert in 2007 and made plans to release a 14th album. But drummer Kim Chang-ik was killed in a traffic accident in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on January 29, 2008, and Sanulrim disbanded after his death.