Kwang graduated from the Soviet Military School and was a captain in the Northeast Anti-Japanese Army until the end of the Japanese occupation.

In September 1962 he became vice of the National Security Agency (Abolished in 1972 and reorganized into the Ministry of People's Armed Forces).

At the 6th Party Congress in October 1980, he was elected to the Central Committee of the WPK and the candidate member of the Political Bureau.

He was inaugurated as the Chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army[2] and a member of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea.

In 1991, he was elected as a member of the Party's Central Military Committee, and on April 20, 1992, he was granted the title of Deputy General of the Korean People's Army.