history

The Unyo incident in 1875 was Japan’s first armed provocation for the military invasion of Korea after the Meiji Restoration in their country.

The Japanese aggressors who had been dreaming of occupying Korea, while advocating the “theory of conquest of Korea”, entered the stage of armed provocation for invasion in the mid-1870s.

Their three warships including the Unyo intruded into the Korean waters in the spring of 1875 in order to threaten and blackmail the Korean feudal government under the signboard of “firing exercise”. And the Unyo trespassed the Korean territorial waters again in September that year.

The aim was to find an excuse for forcing on the feudal Joson dynasty an unequal treaty for achieving their purpose of aggression.

Therefore, the crew of the Unyo was ordered to act as ferociously and outrageously as possible.

Accordingly, the aggressors surveyed the coast of Korea and showed off their military muscle, approaching even a military strategic point for defending the capital city despite the rejection by the Korean feudal government.

Enraged Korean soldiers opened fire on the aggressors.

In the face of the strong defence put up by the Korean garrison, the aggressors could not come closer and therefore they changed their course to raid island villages with no defence facilities, thereby killing many inhabitants and committing plunder and arson. But they were expelled by the troops of the Korean feudal government.

This is the actual fact of the Unyo incident.

But on the pretext of the incident, cunning Japan forced Korea to conclude a subordinate treaty.

The treaty which was named “Korea-Japan safeguarding rules” stipulates that the Korean feudal government should take full responsibility for the incident and make an apology and reparations to Japan.

Afterwards, Japan enforced the colonial enslavement policy against Korea in earnest under the plea of the “rules”.

In the 20th century, Japan seized Korea’s diplomatic right and right of home administration one by one and finally reduced Korea to its complete colony in 1910, thus inflicting untold misfortunes and suffering on the Korean people for nearly half a century.

Japan remains unchanged in its evil intention, although over a century has passed since the Unyo incident that served as a prelude to its military invasion of Korea.

While revising its laws and restructuring state machinery, it is undisguisedly revealing its warlike true colours and recklessly intensifying military buildup and dangerous military actions targeting the DPRK.

If Japan takes the road of overseas aggression, oblivious of the lessons of history, it will lead to its self-destruction.