Ye Wanyong

Who was Ye Wanyong?

Ye Wanyong, also known as Yi Wan-yong was a pro-Japanese minister of Korea, who signed the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty, which placed Korea under Japanese rule in 1910.

Born to a prominent family in Gyeonggi-do province, Ye spent three years in the United States from 1887–1891. Ye was a founding member of the Independence Club established in 1896 and belonged to the ‘reform faction’ which wanted to westernize Korea and to open the country to foreign trade. Ye was a prominent government minister at the time of Eulsa Treaty of 1905, and was the most outspoken supporter of the pact which made the Korean Empire a protectorate of the Empire of Japan, thus stripping it of its diplomatic sovereignty. The treaty was signed in defiance of Korean Emperor Gojong, and he is thus accounted to be the chief of five ministers who were later denounced as Five Eulsa Traitors in Korea.

Under Japanese Resident-General Ito Hirobumi, Ye was promoted to the post of prime minister from 1906-1910. Ye was instrumental in forcing Emperor Gojong to abdicate in 1907, after Emperor Gojong tried to publicly denounce the Eulsa Treaty at the second international Hague Peace Convention.