Last time, I talked about the fact that after the Meiji Restoration, Japan's strength increased dramatically, and in order to divert domestic contradictions, it used force to force Korea to sign the "Ganghwa Treaty."

In April 1875, Shigeru Moriyama, the Japanese governor in Busan, Korea, who had been frustrated in negotiations in Korea, sent his deputy Hironobu Hirotsu back to Japan and proposed to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to send warships to Korea to demonstrate under the pretext of surveying sea routes in order to advance negotiations between Japan and Korea.

Although the "Minister of Imperial Affairs" Minoru Sanjo and the "Secretary of Foreign Affairs" Terashima Muneru did not approve of their plan, Hirotsu Hironobu and others instead consulted with the Navy Daisuke Kawamura Junyoshi (Kawamura Junyoshi) and put forward a "proposal" (request) to send warships to survey the North Sea and the West Sea, which was approved.

On May 25 of that year, three warships, including the "Yunyang," intruded into the waters off Pusan, North Korea, to demonstrate in the name of "surveying the coast." On September 20 of the same year, the warship "Yunyang" invaded Ganghwa Bay near the North Korean capital "Seoul" (later Seoul, South Korea), and sent a small boat to provoke the North Korean "Caozhi Town Battery". The "Caozhi Town Fort" immediately counterattacked in self-defense and opened fire on the Japanese boat first. The warship "Yunyang" also shelled Caozhi Town the next day.

Due to the stubborn resistance of the officers and soldiers of "Chozhi Town", the Japanese marines instead landed at "Yeongjong Town" on September 22 of that year and exchanged fire with local Korean soldiers. At the cost of 2 wounded, the Japanese killed 35 Korean soldiers, captured 16 prisoners, captured 36 cannons, and set fire to the town of Yeongjong before evacuating, which was the "Unyang Incident" (also known as the "Ganghwa Island Incident"). This incident also became the "fuse" for the signing of the "Ganghwa Treaty" between the DPRK and Japan.

On January 8, 1876, the Japanese government appointed Minister Plenipotentiary Kuroda Kiyotaka and Deputy Minister Plenipotentiary Inoue Shin met in Kobe and led three warships and four transport ships carrying more than 1,000 soldiers (800 sailors and 262 marines) to North Korea, preparing to negotiate with North Korea and investigate the responsibility of the "Yunyang Incident", and the more important mission on their shoulders was to use this incident to open the "national gate" of Korea.

In the words of Minoru Sanjo, Japan's "Minister of Imperial Affairs" to Kuroda and Inoue, it is that "the plenipotentiary envoy should conclude an agreement with him on the main purpose, and if he can agree to my request for the repair of the traffic business, it can be regarded as compensation for the 'Yunyang incident', and there is no need to be demanding."

The Japanese "Meiji government" required the envoys to obtain from Korea the following: 1. Except for Busan, the port was opened on Ganghwa Island (later changed to another place because the field survey found that Ganghwa Island was not suitable for opening a port); Two. the right of freedom of navigation off the coast of the DPRK; 3. Apology for the "Yunyang Incident";

4. The Japanese Army's Kiyama Prefecture Aritomo rushed to "Shimonoseki" (Shimonoseki), set up a "Korean Affairs Bureau," and ordered the two towns of Kumamoto and Hiroshima to prepare for sending troops and to immediately send troops to attack Korea as soon as the negotiations broke down; 5. The Japanese Government also ordered the "French Adviser" Pau Sonat to study the conditions under "international law" under which war could be committed. However, due to Japan's financial constraints at that time, it was not suitable to start a large-scale war, so the "Okubo administration" still hoped for a peaceful settlement.

However, there is also an explanation that the main reason why the Okubo administration was actively preparing for war was to control the samurai class in order to prevent them from stirring up trouble in the event of a breakdown in negotiations. Kuroda Kiyotaka was also worried about being shelled by North Korea on the way to Ganghwa Island, and asked the Japanese government to give him two more brigades in case of contingencies, but the Japanese government rejected Kuroda's proposal to increase troops on the grounds that it "violated the pacifist policy."

However, a little before Kuroda and Inoue departed, Japan sent Mori Yuri to Beijing, China, as a minister to China, and gave him the mission of testing the attitude of the Qing Dynasty, the "suzerain" of Korea. On behalf of the Japanese Government, Mori Yuli briefed the Qing court on the "Yunyang Incident" and the process of "reconciliation" by Japan's envoys, and threatened that if Korea did not accept Japan's demands, it would "bring unforeseen misfortune upon itself," and tried to persuade the Qing government to intervene in the negotiations between Japan and Korea.

As a matter of fact, the Japanese hoped that the Qing government would send officials and Japanese envoys to Korea, send a message to Korea, and send letters from Japan to Korea on their behalf. However, these were sternly rejected by the Qing Dynasty's prime minister, Yamen. Premier Yamen said: "Although the DPRK is subordinate to China's vassals, all political and religious prohibitions in its own place are under the dictatorship of the country itself, and China has never heard of it." Today, if the country wants to reconcile with the DPRK, it should also be presided over by the DPRK itself. ”

After a debate with Qing government officials, Mori reported to the Japanese government on January 20, 1876, that the so-called "suzerain" was only in name but not in fact. Korea had the right to conclude a treaty with Japan, but since Korea was still nominally a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty, as Serbia was to the Ottoman Turkish Empire, Korea should not be treated on an equal footing with other "independent states."

Mori suggested that when concluding a treaty with Korea, it was not necessary to include clauses such as a treaty of reciprocity between Japan and Korea, or the exchange of permanent envoys, but only to require the establishment of "consuls" in the capital and treaty ports. He also observed that in the course of the negotiations, "they [the officials of the Qing Dynasty] did not look angry, nor did they pay attention to the misfortune and misfortune of Korea, presumably because of the unharmonious situation within China [the Qing Dynasty of China] and had no other regard for it."

The information that Mori Yuri obtained in China was not known to Kiyotaka Kuroda and others until February 24, 1876. At this time, there were only three days before the signing of the Ganghwa Treaty, and the DPRK and Japan had basically reached an agreement, so there was no impact on the negotiations themselves.

At the same time, the Qing Dynasty's "Ministry of Rites" passed the relevant documents of the "Prime Minister's Yamen" and Mori Youli to the Joseon (which was received by the Joseon on February 4, 1876) in the form of "500 Li Feizhi", asking the Joseon king to "handle it at his discretion". This move is believed to have had a certain influence on the final decision of the Korean government.

After the "Yunyang Incident," Korea did not know that Japan had invaded itself, and it was not until January of the following year that it learned that Japan had committed it, and was informed by the "Busan Wakan" that the Japanese envoys would come to Korea and that "if the minister does not come to pick them up, they must go straight to the capital."

The DPRK government urgently convened a meeting of interim former ministers to discuss countermeasures. After a fierce debate between the main war faction and the main peace faction, on January 30, 1876, the Korean government sent Shin Jae as the receiving official and Yoon Zicheng as the adjutant to negotiate with the Japanese on Ganghwa Island. On February 10 of the same year, Japanese envoys Kuroda and Inoue landed on Ganghwa Island, and the negotiations between Japan and North Korea officially began.

From February 11 to February 20, the DPRK and Japan held four talks. During the first talks, under the pretext of celebrating the "Eno Festival," the Japanese military wantonly fired guns and artillery to show off its military might, which played a considerable deterrent role on the DPRK side.

During this period, the Japanese representative raised the issue of responsibility for the "Yunyang incident" and the DPRK's refusal of the deed, and asked whether the DPRK had "repented"? The DPRK representative stressed that Japan had committed treachery and unprovoked aggression first, and that the "Yunyang" was flying a yellow flag, not a Japanese flag, and also cited the remarks of aggression against Korea made by the Qing government in 1866 in a Hong Kong newspaper by the Japanese Shunshu Hachino, in order to expose Japan's ambitions.

During the second negotiation on 12 February, the Japanese representative came up with 13 terms for repair, and gave a reply within 10 days. During the third negotiation on 13 February, the Japanese representatives openly threatened with force.

In his report to the DPRK government, Shin said: "After answering the call for a long time, he replied to the matter with a written deed and a treaty booklet, and immediately expressed the intention of reciprocation, and replied with a repetition. He said: "If things are not satisfactory, there will be the disadvantages of thousands of troops going to land, and it is forgiven not to go to the realm of disharmony between the two countries." ”

Since the DPRK representative was a "senior official" rather than a "plenipotentiary representative," he was unable to decide on the treaty issue alone in the face of Japan's coercion, so he submitted the 13 terms of reconciliation proposed by Japan to the DPRK government for a decision to be made at the DPRK meeting.

At this time, a wave of protests against the "treaty with Japan" was being set off among the DPRK people. During the negotiations, especially after the news that Japan was about to invade Korea with tens of thousands of troops, news spread everywhere in Korea that Japan would invade Seoul...... Men and women in Beijing, running for things".

A large number of Confucian scholars, led by Choi Yi-hyun, resolutely opposed negotiations and even the conclusion of a treaty with Japan in front of the palace in Seoul. Choe Ik-hyun put forward the theory of "the integration of the Japanese and the foreign", pointed out the unequal nature of the treaty, foresaw the impact of these articles on Korean society and Japan's ambition to annex Korea, and said that if the government did not accept his proposal, he would immediately die with an axe!

The "Xingxuan Dayuanjun", who had already gone into the wilderness, also wrote a letter saying that accepting Japan's demands was "self-destruction", and reprimanded the Min Concubine group for compromising with Japan, claiming that "I have a servant, but I can be martyred, then Qingqiu is 3,000 miles, isn't it the remnant of the cultivation of the ancestors of the sages?" "I didn't hesitate to fight Japan.

However, under the influence of the minister of the "Enlightenment faction," Pak Jong-su, the "Min Concubine clique" who actually ruled Korea at that time, was inclined to open up, but they were afraid that the "Heungseon Daewonjun" would take advantage of the opportunity to seize power and was afraid of the threat of Japanese force, so they decided to make peace and conclude a treaty with Japan in disregard of the strong opposition of the whole of Korea.

At the same time, the "Concubine Min Group" also impeached and suppressed Confucian student Choi Yi-hyun and other demonstrators in public. After several days of deliberation on the draft treaty, the DPRK Government agreed to sign a treaty with Japan on 18 February, but raised objections to the words "Great Japan" and "Emperor" and six articles in the preamble of the treaty.

Since the primary purpose of the Japanese side was to sign a treaty, it also made some concessions, such as changing the preamble to "the State of Korea," which is the opposite of "the Great Japan State," changing the terms "Emperor of Japan" and "King of Korea" to "the Government of Japan" and "the Government of the Republic of Korea," canceling the demand for "opening the port of Yongxing," and deleting the clause on "one-sided most-favored-nation treatment," but without amending the clauses on "place of residence" and "consular jurisdiction," which had been objected to.

There are no further "amendments" in North Korea. As a result, the two sides agreed on the content of the treaty at the fourth negotiation session on February 20. After that, Japan and North Korea had a dispute over the issue of the "note of apology" and the "imperial name and imperial treasure". As far as the former is concerned, Japan is not satisfied with the content of the note issued by the DPRK, criticizing the content of the note issued by the DPRK as all self-justification without any intention of apologizing, and not mentioning the "Yunyang incident" at all.

In the latter case, the Japanese side insisted that the instrument of ratification must have the "Imperial Treasure" on it, citing the common practice of various countries. However, the DPRK believes that the king's name cannot be signed on the documents issued to the courtiers, and can only be stamped with the seal of "government and virtue" used for neighbors, but not the state seal. For this reason, Kuroda and others retreated to the ship for a time to show that the negotiations had broken down, fearing that it would cause an armed conflict between the two sides.

After that, both Japan and the DPRK made certain compromises accordingly, and the DPRK revised the contents of the note to mention the "Yunyang incident" and expressed regret; although the revised "note" did not mean "apologies," the Japanese representative had no choice but to accept it as a "note of apology." Subsequently, the Japanese Government announced that the DPRK had "apologized" to Japan, but did not make public the contents of the note.

Japan also agreed that the King of Korea should use his seal on the instrument of ratification without having to sign it. Joseon, on the other hand, temporarily produced the "Treasure of the Great Korean Lord" (no longer using the "Seal of the King of Joseon" in both Manchu and Han languages given by the Qing Dynasty of China) and enshrined it on the letter of ratification.

In the course of negotiations between Japan and North Korea, the Japanese received covert help from Oh Kyung-seok, an official of the Korean "Enlightenment Faction." At that time, Yasushi Nomura, who was part of the Japanese entourage, wrote in his diary: "Without Oh Kyung-seok, [the negotiations] would probably not have been concluded so quickly, and we are extremely grateful." ”

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