history

The “Ulsa Five-Point Treaty” was a document the Japanese imperialists cooked up to occupy Korea militarily and establish colonial domination over the country.

The Japanese imperialists had long pursued the invasion of Korea with an ambition to turn it into their colony.

After faking the Unyogo incident in 1875, they forced the Korean feudal government to conclude the aggressive, unequal “Kanghwado treaty”.

Later, through the Sino-Japanese war and Russo-Japanese war, they created conditions for having exclusive dominion over Korea.

In November 1905 they sent special envoy Ito Hirobumi to Korea to show the royal letter of the Japanese king to the Korean emperor Kojong, trying to compel him to conclude the gangster-like “treaty”.

The “treaty” fabricated by the Japanese imperialists at will contained only gangster-like demands with emphasis put on depriving Korea of sovereign rights. It stipulated that Japan, through its Foreign Ministry, shall oversee and control foreign relations and foreign affairs of Korea and Korea shall not conclude any treaty or make any promise of international character without the mediation of Japan.

When Emperor Kojong did not agree to it, Ito created an awe-inspiring atmosphere by making the imperial palace completely besieged, but the emperor still refused to agree to it. Then Ito made the palace blockaded to try to coerce ministers into concluding the “treaty”.

At the strong opposition of the ministers, Ito led aggressor troops into the meeting place to forcibly ask each of the ministers for yes or no as if he were questioning criminals.

When many of the ministers expressed opposition, the Japanese imperialists completely neglected it and stole the official seal of the Foreign Minister of the feudal Joson dynasty to stamp it on “the treaty” before unilaterally declaring its conclusion.

The original copy of the treaty the Japanese imperialists fabricated by force of arms has no affixing of the signature of Emperor Kojong and the state seal and no name of the treaty.

When there was the need to open the “treaty” to the public, the Japanese imperialists used the title of “Korean diplomacy trust treaty” before changing it into “Japan-Korea treaty” on November 20 1905.

The Korean people called it “Ulsa Five-Point Treaty” as it was fabricated in the year of Ulsa (the 42nd year of the sexagenary cycle).

After depriving Korea of sovereign rights by means of the “Ulsa Five-Point Treaty”, the result of banditry unprecedented in the history of conclusion of treaties between countries, the Japanese imperialists inflicted untold misfortune and suffering upon the Korean people during their 40-odd-year-long military occupation of Korea.

Such criminal past can never be erased and the Korean people will surely settle accounts with Japan for its crimes.