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Lee Wan-yong
Lee Wan-yong
7th Prime Minister of Korea
	In office; 11 August 1910 – 29 August 1910
Monarch	Sunjong
Preceded by	Pak Che-soon
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Personal details
Born	17 July 1858; Gwangju, Gyeonggi, Joseon
Died	12 February 1926 (aged 67); Keijō, Korea, Empire of Japan
Korean name
Hunminjeongeum	이완용
Hanja	李完用
Revised Romanization	I Wanyong
McCune–Reischauer	I Wanyong
Art name
Hunminjeongeum	일당
Hanja	一堂
Revised Romanization	Ildang
McCune–Reischauer	Iltang
Courtesy name
Hunminjeongeum	경덕
Hanja	敬德
Revised Romanization	Gyeongdeok
McCune–Reischauer	Kyŏngdŏk

Lee Wan-yong (Korean: 이완용; pronounced [iː wɐȵoŋ]; 17 July 1858 – 12 February 1926), also spelled Yi Wan-yong or Ye Wan-yong,^[1] was a Korean politician who served as the 7th Prime Minister of Korea. He is best remembered for signing the Eulsa Treaty and the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty, which placed Korea under Japanese rule in 1910. Lee's name has since become a byword for the chinilpa, or Korean figures who have collaborated with the Japanese Empire.

Early life and education

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.^[2]

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.^[3]^[4]

Career

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. Initially, all of the ministers were against signing the treaty. However, under threat of execution, five of the ministers signed the treaty. Lee was among the first to change his stance.^[5]

The treaty was signed in defiance of Korean Emperor Gojong, and Lee is thus accounted to be the chief of five ministers (including Pak Che-soon, Lee Ji-yong, Lee Geun-taek, Gwon Jung-hyeon) who were later denounced as the "Five Eulsa Thieves" 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 colonisation 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

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.

Legacy

Lee's name has become a byword for "traitor" in contemporary South Korea.^[1] 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]

Family

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; daughter of Min Yong-hyeon (민용현; 閔龍顯; 1786–?)^[a]
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)
  - Son - Ye Hang-gu (이항구; 李恒九; 1881–1945)

In popular culture

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.

Notes

^ He is the 4th great-grandson of Queen Inhyeon's father, Min Yu-jung

References

^ ^a ^b Sang-Hun, Choe (2008-06-12). "An Anger in Korea Over More Than Beef". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-24.
^ 이완용. terms.naver.com (in Korean). Retrieved 2021-05-30.
^ Keith L. Pratt, Richard Rutt (1999). Korea: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary. Psychology Press. p. 186. ISBN 9780700704637.
^ Kim, Jinwung (2012). A History of Korea: From "Land of the Morning Calm" to States in Conflict. Indiana University Press. p. 309. ISBN 9780253000781.
^ McKenzie, F.A. (1920). Korea's Fight for Freedom. Fleming H. Revell Company.
^ English JoongAng Ilbo August 30, 2001
^ Committee OKs Seizure of Collaborators' Property Archived 2008-06-17 at the Wayback Machine The Chosun Ilbo, December 7, 2005
^ South Korea: Crackdown On Collaborators The New York Times, December 24, 2007