Turn off Jeongdong-gil into a side alley and a two-story red-brick building appears. Jungmyeongjeon was not built as a conference hall. Constructed around 1899 as an imperial library, it was first called Suokheon. After the great fire at Gyeongungung in 1904, Gojong moved his office here and the building became a core space of the imperial palace. A quiet library became a room upon which international pressure converged.
Why Koreans add the word “coerced” to the treaty's name
In 1905, Japan pressured the Korean Empire to sign an agreement surrendering its diplomatic rights. Gojong refused to approve it, but with Japanese troops controlling the palace area, five ministers including Yi Wan-yong consented and Japan declared the agreement valid. Koreans therefore commonly call it the Eulsa Neukyak—“the Eulsa Coerced Treaty”—rather than a neutral treaty. Korean diplomacy subsequently came under the Japanese Residency-General.
Three men sent to The Hague
Gojong tried to inform the international community that the agreement had been imposed without his consent. In 1907, he sent Yi Sang-seol, Yi Jun, and Yi Wi-jong as secret envoys to the Second Hague Peace Conference in the Netherlands. They were denied official access to the conference but publicized Korea's case through the press. Japan used the mission as a pretext to force Gojong to abdicate.
A distinction to make inside the exhibition
Jungmyeongjeon's exhibition presents documents, individuals, and the Hague mission together. Visitors should not leave with the mistaken idea that Gojong signed the treaty. The building itself also passed through several owners and uses, suffered fire, and was later restored. Rather than an untouched secret chamber, it is a history museum asking how a nation should remember the loss of its diplomatic sovereignty.