Paik Sun-yup (Korean: 백선엽; Hanja: 白善燁; RR: Baek Seon-yeop; November 23, 1920 – July 10, 2020) was a Republic of Korea Army four-star general who became the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1959 to 1960.

In 1925 the Paik family moved to Pyongyang (called Heijō during Japanese occupation), where they lived under deplorable conditions in a single, rented room.

[1] After the end of World War II, he returned to Pyongyang and started working as an assistant to Kim Ku (a leader of the Korean independence movement against the Empire of Japan).

While undertaking this responsibility, he helped Park Chung Hee, who was at the time being tried as a communist, by persuading President Syngman Rhee to commute his sentence and have him released.

[1] Upon receiving the alert, Paik reassumed command of the 1st Infantry Division, which was involved in heavy fighting near Kaesong and Munsan.

However, after the fall of Seoul and due to the overwhelming offensive by North Korean armored units, he was forced into a fighting withdrawal.

[1] Paik then pulled back to the Nakdong River along the Pusan Perimeter, the last-ditch defense of the allied forces, on the southern tip of Korea.

received adequate anti-tank weaponry, which allowed them to form ‘hunter-killer teams’ and destroy the North Korean's dreaded T-34-85 tanks.

However, it was during this phase of the war that Paik was honored with the recapture of both his birthplace and the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang, on October 19, 1950.

It was during this stage of the war that Paik was again promoted to the command of the ROK 1st Corp, which was tasked with the securing of eastern Korea.

[2] By August, Paik was told to report back to the ROK I Corps where he oversaw the heavy fighting around the 38th parallel at the Punchbowl,[2] a large crater surrounded by hills, and Heartbreak Ridge.

He was appointed president of Korea Chemical Industries in April 1973, where he directed the construction of the largest fertilizing manufactory plant in Southeast Asia at the time.

Later he was appointed the chairman of the Korea Chemical Research Institute, director of the Korea Chemical Research Institute, and National Chairperson of the International Chamber of Commerce and Industry and was appointed to the permanent Advisory Office of the National Unification Agency in 1986, which included conducting security and lecture activities.

In South Korea, President Lee Myung-Bak attempted to promote Paik Sun-yup to the position of the First Head of the ROK Armed Forces, but this was ultimately denied.

Then in 2008, in the Pro-Japanese Personalities and People's Exhibition published by the Institute for National Affairs included Paik in the military section of prospective chinilpa candidates, due to his prior service in the Manchukuo Imperial Army.

Furthermore, in 2009, the Roh Moo-hyun administration's National Behavior Commission included Paik Sun-yup in the highly controversial list of 705 chinilpas.

On January 30, 2019, a group in consisting of retired South Korean generals of which Paik served as an advisor, released a statement criticizing the administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in and the Comprehensive Military Agreement which was signed with North Korea at the September 2018 inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang.