Empress Myeongseong - Eulmi Incident and Assassination

Eulmi Incident and Assassination

The Eulmi Incident (을미사변, 乙未事變) is the term used for the assassination of Empress Myeongseong, which occurred in the early hours of 8 October 1895 at Okho-ru (옥호루, 玉壺樓) in the Geoncheonggung (건청궁, 乾淸宮), which was the rear private royal residence inside Gyeongbokgung Palace.

In the early hours of 8 October, Japanese agents under Miura Goro carried out the assassination. Miura had orchestrated this incident with Okamoto Ryūnosuke (岡本柳之助), Sugimura Fukashi (杉村 濬), Kunitomo Shigeaki (國友重章), Sase Kumadestu (佐瀨熊鐵), Nakamura Tateo (中村楯雄), Hirayama Iwahiko (平山岩彦), and over 50 other Japanese men. They were said to have also collaborated with the pro-Japanese general U Beom-seon (우범선, 禹範善) and Yi Du-hwang (이두황, 李斗璜).

In front of Gwanghwamun, the assassins battled the Korean Royal Guards led by Hong Gye-hun (홍계훈, 洪啓薰) and An Gyeong-su (안경수, 安駉壽). Hong Gye-hun and Minister Yi Gyeong-jik (이경직, 李耕稙) were subsequently killed in battle and the assassins proceeded to the Okhoru (옥호루, 玉壺樓) in Geoncheonggung and subsequently killed Empress Myeongseong. The corpse of the Empress was then burned and buried.

Historian of Japan Peter Duus has called this assassination a "hideous event, crudely conceived and brutally executed." Donald Keene, who calls the queen "an arrogant and corrupt woman," says that the way in which she was murdered was nonetheless "unspeakably barbaric."