Born Chhit Choeun in Takeo province in 1926, Ta Mok moved to Phnom
Penh at the age of 15, and completed monk’s secondary school
there. In 1949, he became chief of the Issarak movement in Tram
Kak district. Ta Mok joined the Indochinese Communist Party in
1950. In 1963 he was appointed a member of the Central
Committee of the Cambodian Communist Party. In 1968, he became
secretary of the Southwest Zone. In 1978, he was promoted to
second deputy secretary of the Communist Party Central
Committee, making him number three in the party hierarchy.
