Diplomatic documents from Germany and the United Kingdom have been discovered stating that Empress Myeongseong was not killed by the Japanese assassins, but escaped and survived the Eulmi Incident. The established theory within the history circle claims that Empress Myeongseong was killed in Geoncheonggung in Gyeongbokgung Palace in the early morning of October 8, 1895.

On June 30, Jeong Sang-su, a research professor at the Integrated Humanities Center in the Korea National Open University announced, “I discovered a classified document, a German diplomatic document claiming that Empress Myeongseong was alive 4 months after the Eulmi Incident, and also found a British document stating that the empress escaped during the Eulmi Incident at Germany’s Federal Foreign Office political archives and the National Archives in the United Kingdom respectively.”

The document found in Germany was a decrypted text of a classified document which Hugo von Radolin, Germany’s ambassador to Russia, sent to the Chancellor of the German Empire Chlodwig Carl Viktor, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst.

The interpretation read that Russia’s Foreign Minister Lobanov-Rostovsky told Radolin that according to his sources, the Korean queen said to be dead was still alive. It continued to state that the Russian Consul to Seoul (Weber) received a highly secret request from a Korean asking if the queen could flee to the Russian legation.

The British document was a report by Walter Hillier, Britain’s Consul-General in Seoul made four days after the Korean Emperor Gojong sought refuge at the Russian legation, and it relays the emperor’s position on the possibility of the empress’s survival.

Hillier reported to Beauclerk, charge d’affaires in Beijing and wrote that concerning the event on October 8 (Eulmi Incident), it appeared the crown prince (Sunjong) narrowly escaped death. It mentioned that the king still did not say whether the queen was dead or alive.

Professor Jeong also found a document written right after the Eulmi Incident. On October 9, 1895, Hillier wrote to Nicholas O’Conor, the British consul to Beijing that the Japanese had killed 3-4 court ladies.

He wrote that the queen had disappeared and it looked like she had escaped. On the following October 22, he sent a report to O’Conor relaying that Weber visited him and mentioned the possibility of the queen’s survival.

Professor Jeong said, “Since these are diplomatic documents from countries like Germany and Britain, which had relations with Joseon at the time, they are highly credible. Instead of taking the assassin of Empress Myeongseong for granted, we should search for the truth by digging for new historical materials.”

The diplomatic documents recently discovered in Germany and the United Kingdom question the assassin of Empress Myeongseong at the time of the Eulmi Incident and also describe the situation on the Korean peninsula and the fate of Joseon, caught in a fierce tornado of international affairs. The academia pointed out that new research on the Eulmi Incident was necessary along with the verification of the authenticity of the latest historical documents.

* Was Empress Myeongseong alive?

Radolin’s report was written on February 6, 1896 and it stated that the queen was alive and that the Russian Consul in Seoul Weber had received a request for the queen to take refuge at the legation. It was a confidential document addressed to the German Chancellor, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst.

The Eulmi Incident was reported in Russia and Europe with the testimony of Seridin-Sabatin, a Russian architect who had witnessed the scene of the empress’s assassination. This report also mentioned that Lobanov-Rostovsky had said that the Japanese soldiers were staying in Korea for too long. It continued to state that just as China had withdrawn from Korea, the Japanese military had no grounds to remain in Korea any longer.

Professor Jeong said, “These words point out that Japan did not follow the Treaty of Tianjin (1885), which stipulates that the military of both Qing and Japan should withdraw simultaneously from Joseon. Japan at last withdrew from the Korean peninsula after the June 9, 1896 Lobanov-Yamagata Agreement.”

In this document, a short memo, “all right,” by the German Emperor Wilhelm II is written in English implying that he had reviewed it. In addition to the report on the survival of Empress Myeongseong, Radolin drew up two more documents on the foreign policy of the British Prime Minister,

Lord Robert Cecil and on the Russian legation in Bulgaria and sent them all to his country. Considering he reported information on the empress along with a report on the situation in Europe shows that there was an intense interest in the political situation on the Korean peninsula.

Meanwhile, Walter Hillier, the British consul-general to Seoul, also frequently sent information on Empress Myeongseong to Britain and Beijing. A report that Emperor Gojong remained silent as to the survival of Empress Myeongseong after the emperor had taken refuge at the Russian legation contradicts the emperor’s past records, which state that he officially announced the death of his empress.

* Conflicting statements after the Eulmi Incident

The information released in October 9-12, 1895, shortly after the Eulmi Incident, includes mixed speculations on the assassination and survival of the empress. On October 9, Hillier reported to the Minister in Beijing O’Conor that the empress had escaped, but the next day O’Conor submitted a report on the death of the empress to the British prime minister.

On October 11, Hillier sent a report to O’Conor which included the court ladies’ testimony of the assassin, and on October 12, sent Sabatin’s eyewitness account of the assassin to the prime minister. On October 10, the German consul to Seoul Ferdinand Krien sent a document to his government claiming that the empress was missing.

Professor Jeong said, “Radolin and Hillier’s reports were drawn up 4 months later, so the information is likely to be more refined.” He added that we should concentrate on the figures who are mentioned in the documents.

Radolin states the source of his information as Lobanov-Rostovsky, the foreign minister of Russia, a country with close ties with Empress Myeongseong. Jeong further said, “Given the relationship between Germany and Russia at the time, Lobanov-Rostovsky could not have mentioned the survival of Empress Myeongseong without solid grounds.”

* Another report mentioning the possibility of survival

The report on the details of the Eulmi Incident, which Weber wrote shortly after the evenet and sent to Russia, contributed to the assassination of the empress being widely accepted. When the western media reported Sabatin’s statement that the empress was stabbed to death and the body later burned, the assassination became fact.

However, Weber who had enclosed Sabatin’s statement in the report also wrote of the possibility that the empress might be alive. At the end of 2001, History Special on KBS aired “Latest Report! Classified Russian Document, The Last Days of Empress Myeongseong” based on Weber’s report, which Park Jong-hyo, a professor at Moscow State University had discovered at the Russian foreign ministry.

This TV program put more weight on the assassination based on Sabatin’s testimony, but it also reported the fact that Weber had written in numerical code that there was a possibility that the queen might still be alive.

Weber’s report included another report by Yi Hak-gyun, an official among the palace guards, on the situation just before the assassination. Yi’s report states that there was a disturbance in the palace at around 4:30 a.m. and that when he reported this to Emperor Gojong asking where the empress was, the emperor reassured him saying that he had already taken appropriate measures and that the empress was in a safe place. Professor Jeong said, “Due to Sabatin’s statement, the possibility of the empress’s survival has not been researched properly.”

* The credibility of the documents

Historians showed various responses to the latest documents. Dr. Jeon Wu-yong, a historian said, “German papers hold many rumors and diplomatic propaganda spread throughout Seoul’s diplomatic circle. Rumors that Empress Myeongseong had not died were widespread shortly after the assassination. Rumors once claimed that the empress had died in the Imo mutiny, but she returned alive 51 days later; this experience fueled the rumors that she was still alive.”

He said, “This document is likely to have included propaganda distributed by Japan to cover up the incident. We should view the documents as new material on rumors in the diplomatic circle.” Lee Tae-jin, president of the National Institute of Korean History said, “Considering the numerous details after the Eulmi Incident, it would be difficult to say that Empress Myeongseong was alive.”

He added, “I agree that Germany’s diplomatic documents are highly reliable, but given the fact that Radolin’s document was written around the time Emperor Gojong escaped to the Russian legation, the person seeking refuge at the Russian legation may have been the king (wang); perhaps it was mistakenly written as the queen (wangbi).”

Kang Sang-kyu, a professor at the Korea National Open University said, “I think we need to secure more data to support these documents.” Kang pointed out, “The newly discovered documents may be just rumors, but they are worth studying as historical material because Germany was a surprisingly important country at the time. Instead of just settling for the widely-accepted theory, we should conduct a thorough review based on primary materials.”