Lee Wan-yong

Lee Wan-yong was born into the Ubong Yi clan (우봉 이씨, 牛峰李氏) to a poor aristocrat family in 1858, but grew up with a lot of support after he became the adoptive son of Yi Ho-jun, who was a friend of Heungseon Daewongun and an in-law. He learned English and theology at Yookyoung Park, went to the United States to live as a diplomat, and returned to Korea to serve as a pro-Russian politician until the 1896 Agwan Pacheon incident, where King Gojong and his crown prince took refuge at the Russian legation in Seoul. As Japan grew stronger, he became a pro-Japanese politician.[3]

Lee was a founding member of the Independence Club established in 1896 and belonged to the "reform faction" which wanted to Westernize Korea and to open the country to foreign trade.[4][5]

Lee was a prominent government minister at the time of Eulsa Treaty of 1905, and was the most outspoken supporter of the pact which made the Korean Empire a protectorate of the Empire of Japan, thus stripping it of its diplomatic sovereignty. The treaty was signed in defiance of Korean Emperor Gojong, and he is thus accounted to be the chief of five ministers (including Park Jae-soon, Lee Ji-yong, Lee Geun-taek, Gwon Joong-hyun) who were later denounced as Five Eulsa Traitors in Korea.

Under Japanese Resident-General Itō Hirobumi, Lee was promoted to the post of prime minister from 1906 to 1910. Lee was instrumental in forcing Emperor Gojong to abdicate in 1907, after Emperor Gojong tried to publicly denounce the Eulsa Treaty at the second international Hague Peace Convention. In 1907 Lee was also chief amongst the seven ministers who supported the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1907, which further placed the domestic affairs of Korea under Japan's control, thus completing the colonialisation of Korea by Japan. Lee is therefore also listed in Korea amongst the Seven Jeongmi Traitors. In 1909, he was seriously injured in an assassination attempt by the "Five Eulsa Traitors Assassination Group".

Japanese rule

General power of attorney to Lee Wan-Yong signed and sealed by Sunjong.

In 1910, Lee signed the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty by which Japan took full control over Korea, while Korean Emperor Sunjong refused to sign. For his cooperation with the Japanese, Lee is also listed in Korea amongst the eight Gyeongsul Traitors. He was rewarded with a peerage in the Japanese kazoku system, becoming a hakushaku (Count), in 1910, and was raised to the title of kōshaku (Marquis) in 1921. He died in 1926.

Lee’s name has become a byword for "traitor" in contemporary South Korea.[2] Despite this, Seo Jae-pil's Dongnip Sinmun (Independence Newspaper) never published any criticism against him.[6]

The South Korean Special law to redeem pro-Japanese collaborators' property was enacted in 2005 and the committee confiscated the property[7] of the descendants of nine people that had collaborated with Japan when Korea was annexed by Japan in August 1910. Lee is one of those heading the list.[8]

• Grandfather
  • Ye Gyu (이규,李圭)
    • Adoptive Grandfather - Yi Sik (이식, 李埴) (1777 - ?)
    • Adoptive Grandmother - Lady Hwang of the Changwon Hwang clan (창원 황씨, 昌原 黃氏); daughter of Hwang In-do (황인도, 黃仁燾; 1740 - ?)
• Father
  • Ye Ho-seok (이호석, 李鎬奭) or Ye Seok-jun (이석준, 李奭俊)
    • Adoptive father - Ye Hyo-jun (이호준, 李鎬俊) (1821 - 1901)
• Mother
  • Lady Shin (신씨, 辛氏) (? - 1893)
    • Adoptive mother - Lady Min of the Yeoheung Min clan (여흥 민씨, 驪興 閔氏); daughter of Min Yong-hyeon (민용현, 閔龍顯; 1786 - ?)[9]
• Wife and children
  • Lady Jo of the Yangju Jo clan (양주 조씨, 楊州 趙氏); daughter of Jo Byeong-ik (조병익, 趙秉翼)
    • Son - Ye Seung-gu (이승구, 李升九)
      • Daughter-in-law - Im Geon-gu (임건구, 任乾九) of the Pungcheon Im clan (풍천 임씨, 豊川 任氏)
    • Son - Ye Hang-gu (이항구, 李恒九) (1881 - 1945)
      • Daughter-in-law - Kim Jin-gu (김진구, 金鎭九) (? - 1933)

• Lee is portrayed by Woo Sang-jeon in the 2015 film Assassination.
• Lee is portrayed by Jung Seung-gil the 2018 South Korean television series Mr. Sunshine.