Hero of the Republic
Hero of the Republic is a North Korean honorific title. It was created on 30 June 1950 as Hero of the Korean People's Republic. It was the first title created in the country. Despite having been created just five days after the Korean War broke out, the connection seems incidental. 533 people were awarded Hero of the Republic during the war, and many more since then.
Since there is no agreed upon order of precedence of North Korean titles, orders, and medals, it is not possible to definitively establish the rank of Hero of the Republic. According to Yonhap's North Korea Handbook, Hero of the Republic ranks below the Order of Kim Il-sung but above the Hero of Labor. Martin Weiser, however, ranks Hero of Labor the highest.Recipients
- Kim Chol-man
- Choe Ryong-hae
- Lee Soo-bok
- Ri Kyong-sim
- Submarine captain, co-captain, chief engineer, and boatswain responsible for the ROKS Cheonan sinking
- Choe Hyon
- Kim Jong-suk
- Jong Song-ok
- Lee Kwon-mu
- Kim Il-sung
- Kim Jong-il
- Peng Dehuai
- Mao Anying
- Wu Xianhua
- Xu Jiayou
- Li Jiafa
- Josip Broz Tito
- Fidel Castro
- Pol Pot
- Ziaur Rahman, President of Bangladesh
- Vladimir Podolkhov
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