Choe joined the Chinese Communist Party and the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army in 1936.

[1] He was, however, concurrently secretly a member of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea and tasked with keeping the KDP from becoming an independent political force.

[1] When the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established in Pyongyang on September 9, 1948, he was appointed the Minister of National Security.

[6] In his memoirs, Hwang Jang-yop, a former chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly who defected to South Korea said Choe was famous for being very hard to have close relations with, but in reality he was not that strict.

[7] In 1970 there were reports of his deteriorating health, and after attending in November 1970 the KWP Congress and retaining his Vice-Marshal position, he departed for treatment in the German Democratic Republic.