Korean Volunteer Army

The Korean Volunteer Army was an armed wing of the Chosŏn Independence Alliance, formed in 1942 by reorganizing the North China branch of the Chosŏn Volunteer Corps. Based in the Taihang Mountains, its fighters carried on an armed struggle against the Japanese until the end of World War II. Under the command of the Eighth Army of China from 1943, it grew from about 140 soldiers at the time of Gyeongseong to more than 1,000 troops in August 1945. After the war it was disbanded and many of its members were incorporated into the Korean People's Army of the new Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Its veterans were known there as the Yan'an faction, and the faction was purged until 1958, after the Korean War.