Five Eulsa Traitors

The Five Eulsa Traitors (Korean: 을사 오적) refers to the five officials serving under Emperor Gojong who signed the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905, which is also referred to as the Eulsa Treaty. The treaty made Korea a protectorate of Japan. The five officials were Education Minister Lee Wan-yong, Army Minister Yi Geun-taek, Interior Minister Yi Ji-yong, Foreign Affairs Minister Pak Chesoon, and Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry Minister Gwon Jung-hyeon.

Five Eulsa Traitors
Hangul
을사 오적
Hanja
乙巳五賊
Revised RomanizationEulsa ojeok
McCune–ReischauerŬlsa ojŏk

Prime Minister Han Kyu-seol and the ministers of finance and justice strongly opposed the treaty, but they and the politically weakened Gojong were unable to effectively resist the Five, even though the Emperor refused to sign the treaty himself, an act required to bring the treaty to conclusion under Korean law. The Japanese government forced Prime Minister Han to step down and installed Park in his place.

Widespread public dissatisfaction at the treaty was directed at the five ministers, and an "assassination group" was formed targeting the five. Yi Ji-yong's house was burned in the same year. Gwon Jung-hyeon was injured in an attack in 1907, and Yi Wan-yong was seriously injured in an assassination attempt in 1909.

In 2005, the Research Center for National Issues identified the names of the five officials responsible for the Eulsa Treaty, as part of its efforts to compile a directory of individual Koreans who had collaborated with the Japanese before and during its colonial rule.

See also
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