The group was involved in a power struggle with pro-Soviet factions but Kim Il Sung was eventually able to defeat both factions and dominate the North Korean government, allowing him to push for unification during the Korean War.
Led first by Mu Chong and then by Kim Tu-bong and Choe Chang-ik, the Korean exiles had lived in Yan'an Soviet and joined the Chinese Communist Party whose headquarters were at Yan'an.
They had formed their own party, in exile, the "North-Chinese League for the Independence of Korea".
In the autumn of 1945, the Soviet Union allowed some 4,000 Koreans who had joined the Chinese communist movement to fight with the People's Liberation Army to return to North Korea, though they disarmed them.
Mu Chong was vice marshal at the Ministry of Defence, Pak Il-u was minister of internal affairs, and deputy commander North Korea-China Combined Forces Command.