Kwŏnŏphoe

The Kwŏnŏphoe was a Korean diaspora organization in Primorskaya Oblast, in the Russian Empire, from 1911 to 1914. It was headquartered in the Korean enclave of Sinhanch'on in Vladivostok and had branches in other Korean settlements in the Russian Far East.

The group's public-facing objectives were to promote commerce and education for the Korean community. For this, it received official recognition and funding from the local Russian government. Secretly, the group served as a hub for the Korean independence movement, and operated the militant Korean Independence Army Government: the first Korean government-in-exile during the 1910–1945 Japanese colonial period.

The group operated the newspaper Taeyangbo and its successor Kwŏnŏp sinmun. While in the midst of training an army it was building, it was forcefully closed upon the beginning of World War I. Russia and Japan both joined the Allies, and made an agreement to suppress Korean independence activists.

The group holds an important place in Korean history, and had many significant members and successor organizations. Its Korean Independence Army government was later succeeded by the National Assembly, then by the Korean Provisional Government, then by South Korea. It is also considered a landmark organization in the history of Koryo-saram: ethnic Koreans of the mainland former Soviet Union.