Empress Myeongseong

Empress Myeongseong (19 October 1851 – 8 October 1895), known in life as Queen Min, was the first official wife of Gojong of Korea, the twenty-sixth king of Joseon and the first emperor of the Korean Empire.

The government of Meiji Japan considered Queen Min an obstacle against its overseas expansion. Efforts to remove her from the political arena, orchestrated through failed rebellions prompted by the father of King Gojong, the Heungseon Daewongun (an influential regent working with the Japanese), compelled her to take a harsher stand against Japanese influence.

After Japan's victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, Queen Min advocated stronger ties between Korea and Russia in an attempt to block Japanese influence in Korea, which was represented by the Daewongun. Miura Gorō, the Japanese Minister to Korea at that time and a retired army lieutenant-general, backed the faction headed by the Daewongun, whom he considered to be more sympathetic to Japanese interests.

In the early morning of 8 October 1895, the Hullyeondae Regiment, loyal to the Daewongun, attacked the Gyeongbokgung, overpowering its Royal Guards. Hullyeondae officers, led by Lieutenant Colonel Woo Beomseon, an ardent supporter of the Daewongun, then allowed a group of Japanese ronins, specifically recruited for this purpose to infiltrate inside the palace, allegedly under orders from Miura. Upon entering the Queen's quarters (Okhoru Pavilion), the assassins "killed three court [women] suspected of being the queen. When they confirmed that one of them was Min, they burned the corpse in a pine forest in front of the Okhoru Pavilion, and then dispersed the ashes." She was 43 years old.