Mr. Allen to Mr. Gresham.
Seoul, Korea , April 6, 1894 . (Received May 28.)
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that on the morning of the 30th ultimo an official came to me very early from the King, announcing that the rebel Kim Ok-kiun,1 who led the revolution of 1884 and has since been a refugee in Japan, had been assassinated in the American settlement at Shanghai by a Korean, Hong Chong-oo, who has lived in Paris for some years. It seems that Hong persuaded Kim, with whom he was quite friendly, to accompany him to Shanghai.
His Majesty wished very much to have the murderer sent here for trial, and requested me to telegraph to our consul-general at Shanghai to use his good offices in having the man given up. I did so; Mr. Hunter replying that he must decline to interfere.
Now, however, the man Hong has been turned over to the Chinese authorities for trial, and they will send him to Korea shortly by gunboat.
In Tokyo something similar was taking place about the same time. A man, Ye, who claimed to have a written order bearing the King’s [Page 17] seal, authorizing him to kill another rebel refugee, Pak Yung-ho, was arrested by the Japanese police upon advice given them by Pak. This man Ye then gave evidence of another conspirator, Hong. The latter went for refuge to the Korean legation. The Japanese Government requested the Korean chargé d’affaires to give up Hong for legal examination, but the charge declined to do so unless he could sit as a judge on the court. The Japanese declined to accede to his stipulation, and Mr. Otori, their minister here, was requested by telegraph to lay the matter before the Korean foreign office. This was done and another refusal was met with. It seems then that by order of the Japanese foreign office the police entered the Korean legation by force and took Hong to prison.
I have given you the facts as they came to me in many messages from the palace Mr. Dun, being on the spot, will doubtless give you the facts more clearly than I can.
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I have, etc.,
- On Kim Ok-kiun’s attempted revolution see Foreign Relations of the United States for 1885, pp. 331–349.↩