Having been thus dispersed the tong-hak moved southward and took their stand at various places in Chulla and southern Ch’ung-ch’ŭng Provinces. Their main point was the town of No-sŭng where for eleven days they continued to revile the government and put up placards defying the government troops. The Korean troops moved on them and soon had them on the retreat again. Other encounters took place at various points but by this time the leading spirits in the tong-hak movement had been captured. Among these were Chŭn Nok-tu and Kim Kă-nam. They were brought to Seoul and the latter was executed and the former is said to have been taken to Japan, but there is some doubt as to his fate. Two tong-hak leaders named Kim Chöng-hyŭn and Au Seung-gwan were beheaded at Su-wŭn and their heads were raised high on poles and the people told to take warning from them. This put an end to the tong-hak except for some small sporadic movements which amounted to nothing. But the tong-hak, like the poor, we have ever with us,—in posse.
Prince Eui-wha was sent to Tokyo to return the visit of Marquis Saionji and present the compliments of the King to the Emperor of Japan.
The Japanese government evidently realized the necessity of having an exceptionally strong representation in Seoul, for Count Inouye arrived on the 20th of October and assumed the duties of minister. He had more than once helped to straighten out matters in Korea and he had the confidence of the king and of the people as well. No better appointment could have been made under the circumstances.
The end of October was signalized by the murder of Kim Hak-u, the vice-Minister of Law, who was one of the strongest and best men that the reform movement had brought to the front. He was stabbed at night in his house.
The month of November witnessed some progress in the reconstruction of the government. The pardon of Pak Yong-hyo had been the sign for a general amnesty to all those who had forfeited their rights in 1884. Sŭ Chă-p‘il, known better as Dr. Philip Jaisohn, who had been many years in America and had become a naturalized citizen of that country, had come back to Korea quietly and was awaiting an opportunity to make himself useful. Sŭ Kwang-böm had also come back from exile in Japan and others who had been kept sedulously in the background because of their liberal tendencies all came forward and received recognition by the king and were put again in line of political preferment. So rapid was the progress of this movement that by the middle of December the king found himself moved to form a new cabinet composed almost entirely of men who had been foremost in the attempt of 1884, as the following list will show. The Ministers were Kim Hong-jip, Yu Kil-jun, Pak Yong-hyo, Sŭ Kwang-böm, Cho Heui-yŭn, Sin Keui-sŭn, Um Se-yŭng, O Yun-jung, Kim Yun-sik, Pak Chong-yang and Yi Cha-myn. At the same time Dr. Jaisohn was employed as adviser to the Privy Council for a term of ten years.
This era of change also affected the Korean Army. The various regiments in Seoul, numbering five, had heretofore been under wholly independent and separate commands but now they were all placed in the hands of the War Department, their names were changed and many men were dropped because of age and younger men were appointed in their places. The tactics that had been taught were given up and the Japanese tactics were introduced instead.
We have referred to the Privy Council. This was an advisory board or council composed of some forty men whose business it was to take up and discuss all important government matters, and it was supposed to have a sort of veto power. It exercised this power for about three years but lost it when the Independence Club was overthrown. The entire personnel of this Council was progressive and pro-Japanese. There can be no question that the machinery was now all complete whereby Korea could be governed properly. There was no great obstacle in the way. All that was needed was that no serious blunders should be made and that the Japanese should act firmly but wisely. At the same time there was a strong pressure being exerted behind the scenes in the opposite direction and, as we shall see, not without effect. And so the year 1894 came to a close and the new year opened with great promise of better things to come. On the fifth of the new year the king went to the Ancestral Temple and in the most solemn manner took an oath to carry out the reforms already determined upon and partly inaugurated. It is unnecessary to give this oath in full but only to enumerate the principal points. After a long preamble in which the king declares his intention to uphold the government as an independent one he guarantees specifically that—
(1) All thought of dependence on China shall be put away.
(2) The line of succession and rank in the Royal Family shall be clearly marked.
(3) The King shall attend to public business in person and in consultation with his ministers, and the Queen shall not interfere in government matters.