In Korea with Marquis Ito

by George Trumbull Ladd

The progress and result of the investigations into this plot of assassination are so significant that this summary account from the Seoul Press is well worthy of reflective consideration:

The authors of the late unsuccessful attempt on the life of Mr. Kwon, the War Minister, have at last been established. The plot is of much greater magnitude than originally supposed, and more than thirty men are now under arrest. The leaders of the conspiracy are two South Chul-la-do men, La In-yung and Aw Ki-ho by name. It is stated that they are men of learning and command some respect among their neighbors. Some days ago they surrendered themselves to the Supreme Court and confessed all that had happened. From their own statements it appears that the events which led them to the dastardly attempt are rather historical than temporary. Since the days of the Japan-China war they have been imbued with the idea that the peace of Korea could be preserved only through the separate independence of Japan, China, and Korea. Guided by this idea they did all things in their power to prevent Russia from gaining ascendancy in this country after that war; and on the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war they prayed, so they say, for the victory of Japan, as her Imperial declaration of war made reference to the maintenance of the territorial integrity of the peninsula. In June, 1905, the two men, with one Yi, a school teacher, went over to Tokyo and made representations to the Household Department and Cabinet Ministers, petitioning for Korea’s independence. On learning from the Japanese press that the conclusion of a treaty was on the tapis between Japan and Korea, which would transfer the conduct of Korean foreign affairs into the hands of the former, they immediately wired to Mr. Pak, the Premier, requesting him not to sign the Convention, even if his life were threatened. The Convention, however, soon became an accomplished fact in November, 1905, and the three left Tokyo for home in the next month. But they soon found it impossible to enjoy tranquillity at home. Japan began steadily to perform that which the Convention of November, 1905, provided for, and they again crossed to Japan, in April, 1906. They vainly attempted to persuade some Japanese politicians to start a movement for the realization of their cherished ideal. Discouraged by another failure, they once more returned to Seoul, and on the initiative of La In-yung, they came to the terrible decision that the Premier and four Ministers of State, who were responsible for the conclusion of the Convention, should be assassinated in order to admit of the present Government being replaced by a new administration, composed of men of greater ability and capable of forcing Japan to restore to Korea the conduct of her own affairs. They were thus awaiting the advent of a good opportunity.

On the other hand, a survivor of the Chi Ik-hyun rebellion, named Pak Tai-ha, with Kim Tong-pil, arrested on Tuesday, and a few others discontented with the present régime, were conspiring here to raise another rebellion; and La and Aw, happening to come in contact with these men, a special friendship was soon contracted between them. Pak and his associates were prevailed upon by La and Aw to abandon their own plan and join the plot against the Government in power. Here stepped in another person, by name Kim In-sik, hailing from North Chul-la-do. Having many acquaintances among the officials of the Government, especially among those now out of power, Kim was asked to raise a fund necessary for the achievement of their common cause; and he succeeded in drawing a sufficient sum from the discontents. Yi Yong-tai, ex-Minister of the Imperial Household, now under arrest, headed the subscription list by contributing 1,700 yen, and this was followed by 1,200 yen by Min Hyung-sik, Vice-Minister of Education, who was arrested on Thursday night, through the medium of Chi Ik-chin, Chief of the Accounts Section of the Imperial Guards Bureau in the Household Department, who, in turn, was also arrested on Thursday night. A few minor contributions were made by ex-officials, making a total of 3,400 yen.

The date originally fixed for the assassination of the five Ministers was the 1st of the first moon, when all the high dignitaries proceed to the Palace to offer their congratulations to the Emperor. They hired a number of men in Chul-la-do and Kyöng-sang-do for the purpose; but the plan miscarried owing to the belated arrival of these men. The 25th of May was then chosen. Some fifty men came up to town in time from the above two provinces, and five bands, each under the command of a leader, were posted along the roads leading to the Palace from the respective residences of the Premier, Ministers of the Interior, War, Education and Justice, and Mr. Yi Kun-tak. The company commanded by Aw Ki-ho, which was to do away with Mr. Pak, failed through the hesitation of the hired men; but Yi Hong-tai’s company, charged with the killing of the War Minister, had courage enough to make an attempt. Their efforts, however, proved abortive, and led to the detection of the plot.

An analysis of this group of Korean officials and commoners, bent on wholesale political murder of their own countrymen in office, because the latter were avowedly committed to a reform of the economical and judicial condition of Korea, without distinction as to the ill success, or even, in certain particular cases, the unfaithfulness of these “reformers” shows it to have been composed of three classes of persons. There were, first, the high-class officials who, with one exception, were themselves at the time among the party of the “outs”; and who undoubtedly found in this fact the chief crime of the Japanese administration against themselves. There were, second, the misguided patriots who, beginning with an honorable but vain unwillingness to admit the incapacity of their country to manage its own affairs, had sunken to the condition of prejudice and hatred which made them plan to murder their own cabinet ministers, because the latter had, however reluctantly, admitted this incapacity and acted accordingly. And there was, third, that basest of all criminals, the cold-blooded, unprincipled, hired assassin.

The administration of justice in an even-handed manner is peculiarly difficult in Korea; and, indeed, until recently no serious attempt at such a thing has ever been made. In the case of this complicated plot for assassinating the entire Korean Cabinet, it should be borne in mind that several of its chief promoters were very highly connected; they were, indeed, connected well up towards His Imperial Majesty on his throne. Considering this fact, the issue when reached showed a marked improvement already established in judicial affairs. It was indeed rumored—and perhaps correctly—that Mr. Min Hyung-sik, the Vice-Minister of Education, underwent preliminary examination, in the old-fashioned Korean style, by being cruelly beaten. And the anti-Japanese press tried to make it count against Marquis Ito’s measures for judicial reform that he had not prevented the traditional Korean mode of torturing suspects! But this way of examining criminals was still legal in Korea. It was also said that Mr. Yi Yon-yung, chief of the Supreme Court, sent in his resignation, on the ground that, as his younger brother was one of the five ministers who were doomed to death by the assassins, it would not be fair for him to try the case.

At the time of our leaving Seoul the trial of these conspirators was not finished. But on Wednesday, July 3d, at 4 P. M., the Supreme Court returned judgment upon twenty-nine persons who had been tried and convicted of connection with the plot to assassinate those Korean officials who took part in the Japanese-Korean Convention of November, 1905. Three of the hired murderers who, besides this crime, were found to have been previously guilty of armed robbery, were sentenced to death. The others received sentences of exile (a penalty feared more than death by many Korean officials), for periods of from five to ten years. Among those to whom the longest sentence of exile was measured out, were the notable names of Yi Yong-tai, ex-Minister of the Imperial Household; Soh Chang-sik, ex-Minister Resident, and my auditor at the lectures on education, Min Hyung-sik, Vice-Minister of Education.

Even while the examination of this group of assassins was going on, and after the change in the Ministry had been effected, another plot against the lives of the same men was discovered. This conspiracy was, however, less important as respects the rank of the persons involved and less extensive in the number of those participating. Most of the ten Koreans thought to be concerned in it belonged to the Yang-ban class, or the “gentry,” and all were followers of Confucianism. The opinion prevailed that the motive of these conspirators was scarcely to any degree patriotic; but that their principal object was to collect money from the disappointed political groups of the capital. At all events, seven of the criminals were arrested, the plot broken up thoroughly, and another lesson given to Korean officialdom that assassination is no longer to be so sure a path to official promotion and Imperial influence as it has too often been in the past history of the country.

An amusing but significant incident illustrative of Korean official procedure came under my own observation. Prince Tokugawa, who had been staying somewhat more than a week at Miss Sontag’s, before leaving Korea, gave an “at home” to about one hundred and fifty invited guests. Soon after the company had assembled, and while the ladies were in the drawing-room and the gentlemen in the large outer, enclosed verandah, suddenly the electric lights went out and the company were left in total darkness. The gentleman with whom I was conversing at the moment and I looked through the glass doors of the verandah and observed that the electric lights outside were still burning. At this discovery my companion, who had had some experience in the ways of Seoul diplomacy, became somewhat disturbed, and remarked: “Such things sometimes happen by previous arrangement.” Almost immediately after the sudden darkness came on, a servant emerged from the dining-hall with a lighted taper, and crossing to the drawing-room proceeded to light the numerous candelabra. At the heels of the servant followed Prince Eui Wha, pale with fright, on his way from the verandah to the drawing-room, where he slipped behind a barricade of ladies and planted himself against the wall. It should be remembered in explanation of so singular behavior that this Prince, although he is the Emperor’s son by a concubine, is hated by no fewer than three different parties; these are the Min family, who favor the succession of the son of the Queen; the party of Lady Om, who would gladly see her young son come to the throne; and the violently anti-Japanese crowd who believe that Prince Eui Wha is too much under Japanese influences. It had been rumored previously that a letter had threatened him with assassination. However this may be, the present was not the expected occasion; for examination showed that the burning-out of a fuse was the real cause of the sudden darkness: and a servant repaired the connection so that, just as a workman hastily summoned from the electric plant, entered the front door, the lights as suddenly came on again.

The plots for assassination undoubtedly contributed to the causes which had already for some time been at work to make necessary a change in the Ministry. In spite of the enmity which the existing Cabinet had excited on account of its unwilling part in the Convention of November, 1905, it had held together for a remarkably long period of time. Not all its members, however, were equally sincere or efficient in carrying out the reforms to which they had pledged themselves; at least one of its members had been accused of a notable attempt at the old-time manner of corrupt administration of office. The Il Chin-hoi people, or members of a numerous so-called “Independence Society,” had been “heckling the Cabinet Ministers” by accusing them of venality and incapacity. In a memorial forwarded to the Government by its committee, the beginning read: “We herewith write you and enumerate your faults”; the memorial ended with the amusingly frank declaration: “The only thing for you Cabinet Ministers to do is to resign your posts and retire into private life. Your armed body-guards are entirely useless. If you do your duties assiduously and honestly, every one will love you; but if you pursue idle and vicious courses, every man’s hand will be against you.” Moreover, the acting Prime Minister Pak, although of good intentions, had not developed the ability to lead and control his colleagues, and he was probably acting wisely when he insisted on having his resignation accepted. The resignation of their chief involved the resignations of all and the formation of a new Ministry—although not necessarily of a Ministry composed wholly of new members.