Korean Lawsuit Over the Murder of Queen Min

Korean Lawsuit Over the Murder of Queen Min

This article caught my attention.  I wear many hats–consultant, author, coach, expert witness, strategist– but at the core, I’m a cultural historian focused on Korea.  This new lawsuit centers on the death of Empress Myeongseong, also known as Queen Min. As Korea was beginning to open to the West, she was brutally murdered by a group of Japanese assassins on Oct. 8, 1895. (More details here).

(AP) — SEOUL, July 16 (Kyodo)-A South Korean civic group said Friday it plans to file a lawsuit against the Japanese government over the 1895 murder of Queen Min, the wife of the King Gojong of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), by Japanese assassins, according to Yonhap News Agency. At a protest rally in front of the Japanese Embassy, the group issued a statement saying it will demand, through the lawsuit, that the Japanese government reveals the truth about the murder case, and the Japanese emperor makes an apology.“Japan has not made an official apology or repented on the barbarian act of murdering Empress Myeongseong, which happened 115 years ago,” according to the statement from the group of South Korean victims from the Pacific war.“Japan has not made an official apology or repentance 100 years after it obliterated the Korean people for 35 years through the 1910 Korea-Japan Annexation Treaty,” the statement said. The lawsuit will be filed if the Japanese government does not accept their demands that the Japanese government issue a special statement on Aug. 15, offering the emperor’s apology and mentioning whether it will release related documents on the murder case. A group of people to handle the lawsuit will leave for Japan on Aug. 5 and hold rallies to demand the Japanese government accept their demands. Academics in South Korea and abroad have raised the possibility that the murder of the Korean empress could be a state crime on the grounds that Japanese diplomats played a major role in the case, Yonhap said.

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