乙末亡命者의 拿還問題

Problem of Repatriating Exiles of Eul-mi Year

Whether or not to repatriate by force those political exiles who had taken refuge in Japan in the year Eul-mi(乙末 1895) in the 1900s gave rise to a serious trouble in diplomacy between the Kerean imperial government and Japan. Japan had quickly made advances and begun wielding its political influence on the Peninsula after the victory over China in the Sino-Japanese War, and saw to it that a Japanophile cabinet was organized by Kim Hong-jip(金弘集) in Korea. And forcing on the Korean government various plans of reformation such as the Gab-o-gyeong-jang Plan(甲午更張) Japan aroused antagonism and infuriation of the more conservative sects in Korea. Especially, the repulsion from the powerful Mins(閔氏) was strong and bitter. Infuriated in turn, Japan instigated Goro Miura(三浦梧樓), Japanese consul to Korean imperial government, and reporters of the daily Han-seong Il-bo(漢城日報) together with a group of Japanese wandering adventurers to the murder of Queen Min. As an aftermath of this brutal murder, members of Kim Hong-jip’s cabinet were all accused of treason. Some were ‘cold-bloodedly murdered and others had to escape to Japan. Then the Korean government demanded Japan to hand these criminals over and the Japanese government refused to do so, this exchange of demands and refusals subsequently coming to a deadlock in diplomacy. The Korean government then began to dispatch assassins to dispose of these exiles in Japan, while Japan continuously shielded the refugees, virtually permitting them each a status of political exile. Partly owing to the arbitration of Consul Gonsuke Hayashi(林權助) of Japan, the Korean government later had to content itself with a judgment by default with the accused absent from court, sentencing them to death by hanging or to life imprisonment. Because the sentenced were not available, however, these sentences were never carried out. By that time the Korean imperial government had been robbed of the right to international diplomacy. Of course, the failure of the Korean imperial government to execute the sentences was caused by the Japanese stand that there had been no agreement between the two governments concerning the repatriation of criminals. But, in truth, the Japanese had intended to make use of these refugees in future in the interest of their further advance and expansion onto the Peninsula, despite their indictment by the Korean government. Be that as it might, these refugees never were pro-Japanese in the days, nor bacame turncoats afterwards.