Korea’s first newspapers published in late 19th century

The Independent (Dongnip Sinmun in Korean), the first independently owned newspaper in the nation, began operations in 1896 and published a four-page edition (three pages in Korean and one page in English) three times a week. It became a daily newspaper later and the English section was published separately. / Korea Times file

By Robert Neff

One of the first newspapers in Korea was the Hanseong Sunbo, which began printing on Oct. 31, 1883. It wasn’t the first newspaper in Korea ― that honor belongs to the Chosen Shinpo, a Japanese-owned newspaper first published in Busan on December 10, 1881 ― but it was the first newspaper published in Seoul.

Pak Yong-hyo, a young Korean reformist, is given credit as establishing the paper but much of managing the daily operations and editing of the newspaper was performed by Inoue Kakugoro. Inoue was a 23-year-old Japanese who, in addition to his role in the newspaper, worked as an advisor for the Korean Foreign Affairs Office. The Hanseong Sunbo, which was printed every ten days and was written in classical Chinese, was almost immediately in political trouble.

Prof. Lankov describes the Hanseong Sunbo as having “informed its readers of the political life of the country and the world as well as ran educational articles on modern science and philosophy.” But it did more than that. Inoue wrote scathing articles about the Chinese including one entitled “The savagery of the Chinese” which quickly gained the ire of the dominant faction of Korea. These articles were answered with a pamphlet, printed in Chinese, calling for Inoue’s death. The Chinese government also weighed in by sending a strong protest to the Korean government chiding it for allowing “very impolite” material to be published. The pressure from the Chinese government was too much and in May 1884 Inoue resigned his positions with both the newspaper and the Korean government and returned to Japan.



In August, Inoue returned to Korea but in what official capacity is unclear. It is clear, however, that he was a key member in a plot to overthrow the Korean government. On Dec. 4, 1884, a group of young Korean reformists – including Kim Ok-kuin, Pak Yong-ho and So Chae-p’il, aided by members of the Japanese embassy – including Inoue, tried to seize the government, but failed and were forced to flee to Japan.

Unsurprisingly, the office and equipment of the Hanseong Sunbo, which was deemed the “embodiment of dangerous ideas”, were destroyed in the subsequent unrest.

But Inoue and the newspaper could not be stopped. He returned to Korea in March 1885 and was soon afterwards implicated in interfering in Korean politics. The Japanese government wanted to arrest him but, surreally, Inoue sought and received protection from the Korean Foreign Affairs. The Korean government refused to extradite him and in 1886 he helped revive the Hanseong Sunbo as a weekly (Hanseong Jubo). Prof. Lankov notes that the Hanseong Jubo “was in some respects more radical than its predecessor” but was also responsible for several firsts including publishing some articles in vernacular Korean and the printing the first business advertisement in Korea. But like its predecessor, it was short-lived and closed its office in 1888.

But Seoul was not without other newspapers. Throughout the 1890s there were several small papers published by Japanese, including a paper that published some of its articles in hanguel. These papers, however, were correctly seen as Japanese sponsored endeavors and were tainted by the roles some of their members played in Japanese-Korean affairs including the savage murder of Queen Min.

In late 1895, Yun Chi-ho, who had studied abroad and had served as the interpreter for the American legation in Seoul during the early 1880s, tried to establish his own newspaper but failed. His diary entry of Dec. 2, 1895, describes some of the reasons why:

“Dr. [Horace] Allen and Mr. [John] Sill (American Minister to Korea) have fits of fear on them. Mr. [Homer] Hulbert and I wanted to start a paper. But Dr. Allen and Mr. Sill told Hulbert that the Legation would at once come down on anything of the sort. They could not allow any refugee to start a paper opposed to the government under the American auspices direct or indirect. The representatives of Uncle Sam went so far as to say that the present government is the government de facto, because all the decrees are in the name of the King! Funny! Were not the decrees which appeared soon after the murder of Her Majesty all in the name of the King? How is it then that the American Legation which maintained the illegality of the Cabinet soon after the murder, because the King's decrees were issued under coercion, now turns round and says that the decrees now issued are legal? This inconsistency and weakness of the Legations have wronged many a people.”

Although Yun was disheartened, he didn’t have long to wait. So Chae-p’il, now an American citizen, returned to Korea in 1895 and established what has been heralded as the first independently owned newspaper in Korea, aptly named Dongnip Sinmun or the Independent.

The Independent began operations in April 1896 and published a four-page (three pages in Korean and one page in English) edition three times a week. As the paper gained popularity, the English section was published separately and it became a daily. Naturally, Yun Chi-ho also became involved in the newspaper and eventually came to run it after So was forced to leave Korea in April 1898.

By its nature the Independent tended to clash with the Korean government. It published articles that strongly attacked the increasing Russian influence in Korean politics and uncovered and reported the wrong-doings of government officials. It may have inspired other Koreans to establish their own papers, such as Nam Kung-ok, who founded the Hwangseong Sinmun in 1898. Nam was decidedly anti-Japanese and was later (1900) the first Korean journalist to be charged with meddling in the affairs of the government when he reported that Russia and Japan had concluded a secret treaty to divide Korea. Nam was eventually acquitted.

At the end of 1898, Yun was given a government position and The Independent was turned over to Henry Gerhart Appenzeller, an American missionary, and H. Emberly, an Englishman. The paper under their leadership was far from a success. Horace Allen, who at this time was the American ambassador to Korea, wrote:

“The paper was continued in a deviatory fashion by an illiterate man named Emberly for a portion of the year 1899. At first he had some help from H.G. Appenzeller, but that soon failed him and his papers began to come out once in a few weeks and finally stopped in the autumn.”

Allen’s description of Emberly seems rather caustic considering Emberly was the foreman of the Trilingual Press in Seoul in 1898.

But there is more to the story of the Independent. Alarmed by the increasing power of the press, the Korean government wanted to have an English-language newspaper that would print the news the way it wanted. In December 1899, the Independent, its press and office were sold to the Korean government for 4,000 yen (roughly $2,000).

The Korean government then hired John O’Shea, a young Irish reporter working in Shanghai, to publish a semiweekly English edition of The Independent. Unbeknownst to the Korean government, O’Shea was truly the stereotypical “drunk fighting Irishman.”

When he arrived in Seoul in early January 1900, he allegedly began recruiting Koreans and foreigners to begin publication as soon as possible but the feigned enthusiasm that he displayed was soon disproved by his actions.

O’Shea began drinking every day and was a violent drunk. One modern Korean historian describes him as “a ruffian with no thought of producing newspapers. Drunk every day, whenever he saw a passerby he went wild, to the extent of beating them up as he liked ― sometimes firing his pistol at random.”

The Korean government appealed to the British Minister, Jordan, to intervene and help it remove O’Shea from Korea and to collect the wages that he owed to his staff, but Jordan refused. He claimed that the Korean government had hired O’Shea and it was the government’s responsibility to ensure that he was a man of good virtues. Fortunately for Korea, the 31-year-old O'Shea fled to Shanghai where, with the luck of the Irish, he was able to land a position as editor of the Shanghai Times in 1902.
SOURCE:Korea Times