"Kkangpae" - the Korean Mob

     I closed out the blogs on the North Korean Kim family with a paragraph about the odd hairstyles of Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un, the hairstyles that were worn by Korean gangsters or mob members known as kkangpae.  There may be some twisted logic in the reason why the Kims' chose to sport such hairstyles.  It may be an attempt to somehow connect with the past, romantic past that may be nothing but an invention of a good story teller!  Let me elaborate on that a bit, with a background history on the kkangpae.
     Unlike the Japanese yakuza or the Chinese Triads that can trace their origin several centuries into the past, the Korean mob, the kkangpae, did not really appear until the late 19th Century, the tail-end of the Chosun Dynasty.  Prior to that, Chosun Dynasty ruled with such complete control that it would have been very difficult for any illegal organization to survive.  At the end of Chosun Dynasty, the rule relaxed and free enterprise flourished to some extent.  This allowed the appearance and growth of organized crime, the Korean Mob that came to be called kkangpae, which literally means thugs!The kkangpae operated mainly in the southern regions as well as in Japan itself!  However, it was the Korean mobs fight against the Japanese yakuza that allowed them to ultimately rise in power, and those kkangpae members who were in Japan, merged with yakuza. 
     One of the first leaders of the kkangpae mob was Kim Doo Han, son of a well known Independence Fighter Kim Jwa Jin in the early 20th Century.  Kim Doo Han became discouraged with fighting, trying to oust the Japanese from Korea.  So, to survive, he turned to life of crime and became a leader of a Korean mob.  Since most of their illegal activities were directed at the Japanese, many did not view them as criminals.  In the early 20th Century, two things happened. One, the Japanese yakuza tried to move in on Korea, which was a Japanese colony, and two, many of the yakuza members and leaders by this time were Koreans!  Kim Do Han actually ran a Korean gang, a kkangpae, in Japan when he went to "war" against the Japanese yakuza in the area, the same yakuza that was trying to move in on Korea.  It was a bloody fight, but Kim Do Han succeeded not only in defeating the Japanese yakuza and ousting them from Korea, but becoming the overall boss!
     This whole episode was much publicized by some Koreans and, of course, romanticized and liberally splashed with a patriotic theme.  It was the first "Korean victory" of any kind over the Japanese, and since it was led by a son of a famous Independence Fighter, naturally, in some circles, it was simply viewed as a victory fighting for independence!  Interestingly, many of the yakuza, including their leader, were Koreans!  So, the fact that Kim Do Han took over, was not really a big deal.  By that time, many Koreans had joined the yakuza, one of the few "jobs" available to Koreans under the Japanese rule!
     Korea was very slow to take to western ways, western clothing and fashions.  In the early 20th Century, there were still many Korean men who wore their hair long, in a bun!  Western style barbers were not that common, and Korean barbers were not familiar with western hairstyles.  The so-called ggakdooki hairstyle worn by the kkangpae in those early years, the rather ugly "do" with shaved sides, was no doubt partly the result of lack of skill in western style haircutting by Korean barbers at the time!  Kim Do Han and his followers sported ggakdooki hairstyles.  However, by the 1920s and 30s, ggakdooki went out of style even with the kkangpae.  With more exposure to the western styles by way of movies, magazines, and foreign travel, Koreans became more familiar with western mode of dress and grooming.  By the time the war ended in 1945, the kkangpae in Korea were seen sporting pompadours with greasy hair pomade, in a hairstyle that was called haikhule.  The haikhule was always identified with western fashion, western way.
     I believe that both Kim Jong Il and the son Kim Jong Un have/had ggakdooki hairstyles because they believe that it ties them closer to the Independence Fighters, namely Kim Do Han.  Be that as it may, in North Korea, there never were any kkangpae so the people no doubt identify that ugly hairstyle with Independence Fighters of old, especially since the elder Kim, the founder of North Korea was an Independence Fighter!  It just goes to show how out of touch that family is with reality!  But never mind the Kims, back to the kkangpae.
     Generically, all thugs are called kkangpae, after all, that is what the name means!  The Korean word for mob is pa, and the Korean mafia is known as gondal or jopok.  There are currently three well known mobs in Korea.  There is the Ssang Kal Pa (the Twin Knives mob), Chil Sung Pa (Seven Star mob), and the Hwan Song Sung pa (H.S.S. mob) - no one is really sure what the initials H.S.S. stand for, some think they are the first initials of the names of the founders.  Whatever the case, these are the best known organized mobs in Korea, stretching from Seoul down to Pusan.  They are organized very much like the yakuza, and although they do not tattoo their bodies extensively like the yakuza, they do wear identifying tattoos, usually to identify their gang membership and rank.
     The South Korean mob, the kkangpae has spread its tentacles all around the world, mainly because Korean businesses and enterprises are now located all over.  They are known to operate all over the United States and are often mistaken for the Japanese yakuza. They even operate in Japan, along side the yakuza with whom they had gone to war in the early 20th Century, but seem to have come to some sort of an agreement now.  In America they are quite visible in Korea Town in LA and in other cities where there are large Korean populations.
     Of the three Asian organized crime syndicates, the Japanese yakuza, the Chinese Triads, and the Korean kkangpae, the Koreans are least known.  That is because they are the youngest of the three, but it doesn't mean that they are not present in countries and cities outside of Korea.  They are all over!
     The modern day kkangpae will not be seen sporting that ugly ggakdooki hairstyle.  They will more than likely have either a shaved head (which is popular with gangsters today all over the world!) or some other form of modern hairstyle.  But if you want to see what that old Korean gangster hairstyle with its ugly shaved sides looks like, just look at the photo of Kim Jong Un or his late father Kim Jong Il.