Kim's art names included Usa (우사), Kummun (금문), Kimsong (김성), and Chukchok (죽적).

He was sent by Lyuh Woon-Hyung and Chang Duk-soo, who had organized Sinhan Cheongnyeondang in Shanghai in the summer of 1919.

[2] Kim was a leading member of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea based in Shanghai, becoming the Vice-President.

After the post World War II liberation of Korea in 1945, he returned to his homeland to join in the formation of a newly independent state, which was then under the rule of the United States Army Military Government in Korea in the south and the Soviet Civil Authority in the north.

In September 1947, the United States and Syngman Rhee et al. pushed to move the Korean question to the newly created United Nations, which voted to allow for elections in the south despite the objections of southern nationalists such as Kim Kyu-sik and Kim Ku as well as from the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea, who were opposed because of the non-participation of the North.