Expansion of Japanese colonial capital during the 1920s resulted in increased poverty and depression for the Koreans, and became a target of the resistance struggle. It also stimulated the rise of the socialist movement that was in vogue at that time throughout the world. Japanese laborers frequently joined Koreans in disputes over Japanese capital interests.

The exiled Provisional Government of Korea made efforts to appeal before the great powers at the League of Nations Conference in Geneva in 1932, but leading countries with colonies of their own refused to discuss the Korean prob­lem. Nevertheless, some countries made persis­tent efforts to recognize the Provisional Government. The Moscow government of Lenio approved the granting of a loan in the amount of two million rubles, while the Canton govern­ment of Sun Yat-sen extended formal recogni­tion to the Provisional Government .

Secret organizations continued to operate at home, attacking and destroying Japanese police stations and government buildings. Korean lead­ers were also active in supplying funds to inde­pendence fighters in Manchuria and Shanghai to promote their military and political activities. Along the northern border many small groups of Korean soldiers continued attacks against the Japanese troops. The Uiyoltan, organized in Manchuria in November of 1919, as an indepen­dence organization, infiltrated its commandos into Seoul and Tokyo to carry out the mission of attacking Japanese government offices and assassinating officials. There were frequent explosion incidents in Korea and Japan, and even in China.

Yoon Pong-gil, a member of the Aeguktan (Patriotic Association), succeeded in killing several Japanese army commanders in China with a bomb at their gathering in Shanghai in April 1933. His success raised the morale not only of Koreans but also of the Chinese who were faced with mounting Japanese aggression.