國債報償운동과 프레스ㆍ캠페인

The Press Campaign for the National Loan Repayment Movement in the Last Years of the Yi Dynasty

In the last years of the Yi Dynasty, Korea became Japan’s protectorate by force. Deprived of its diplomatic rights, the Yi Government had to be under the supervision and guidance of the Japanese Inspector-General’s Office, (統監府) newly established in Seoul. The Japanese advisors assigned to the Yi Government intervened in its internal affairs at will in the name of “protecting” the country and, in th emeantime brought in an enormous loan in the amount of 13 million Yen from the Japanese Government. The loan, of course, was not made of the Yi Government’s own will but imposed by Japan, and the Korean people then were greatly apprehensive of it. For they did not want to enslave themselves financially. In early 1907 at last, some patriots inaugurated the national loan repayment movement(國債報償運動) in the Yongnam(嶺南) area, and the dailies published by Koreans immediately launched a press campaign in support of the movement. Alarmed over the situation, the Inspector-General’s Office began to suppress the movement after declaring that it was an outright resistance of the Korean people against Japan. Nevertheless, the movement spread to all corners of the country day after day, accompanied by a loud call for national sovereignty. The Inspector-General’s Office went so far as to arrest the key members of the most influential Dehan Meil Sinbo(大韓每日申報) to put down the movement eventually. After this incident, the Yi Dynasty was forced to be annexed to and colonized by Japan. Although it ended in failure, the movement for national loan repayment finds significance in having marked the first press campaign initiated by the Korean newspapers, which occupies an important place in the history of the Korean press.