When Japan surrendered in August 1945, both the Chinese Nationalist government and the Chinese Communist Party(CCP) considered Korean people in China foreigners rather than an ethnic minority. As the CCP’s strategy toward Northeast China changed from its sole occupation to guerrilla warfare, however, the CCP began to recognize Koreans in the region as an ethnic minority and allocated land while appealing to them to actively participate in the Chinese revolution for the CCP’s victory. Through the continued relaxation of criteria for obtaining a Chinese citizenship, ‘the legalization of the ethnic Korean ethnic minority in China was eventually completed in the early 1960s. Nevertheless, ‘emotional transition of the ethnic Korean ethnic minority had underwent an unsmooth path. Only after the first and second generations of ethnic Koreans in Northeast China were replaced with the third and fourth generations, and by the severance of exchanges with North Korea in the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, emotional ethnic minority was accomplished. Kim Il-Sung, out of consideration for both ideological affinity and his regime’s security and safety, actively supported the CCP during the civil war by providing weapons and shelters to the CCP and persuading the ethnic Koreans in Northeast China to participate in the Chinese communist revolution. In sum, the outbreak of Chinese Civil War and the CCP-North Korean mutual dependency during the Chinese Civil War proved to be decisive factors in the making of the ethnic Korean ethnic minority in Northeast China.