Ye Wanyong

Ye Wanyong
Korean name
Hangul
Hanja
Revised Romanization	I Wanyong
McCune–Reischauer	Yi Wanyong
Pen name
Hangul	일당
Hanja
Revised Romanization	Ildang
McCune–Reischauer	Iltang
Courtesy name
Hangul	경덕
Hanja
Revised Romanization	Gyeongdeok
McCune–Reischauer	Kyŏngdŏk

Ye Wanyong (pronounced [iː wan.joŋ]; 17 July 1858, Seongnam – 12 February 1926), also known as Yi Wanyong, was a pro-Japanese minister of Korea, who signed the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty, which placed Korea under Japanese rule in 1910.

Born to a prominent family in Jeolla-do province, Ye spent three years in the United States from 1887–1891. Ye 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.

Ye 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, Ye was promoted to the post of prime minister from 1906-1910. Ye 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 Ye 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. Ye 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".

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Wikipedia