Yi Jun

Yi Jun (Bukcheong, December 18, 1859 – The Hague, July 14, 1907) was a Korean prosecutor and diplomat.

Yi Jun was born in Bukcheong (북청) in the province of South Hamgyong and later worked as a judge in Seoul. In 1907 he and his compatriots Yi Sang-seol and Yi Wi-jong were delegated by Emperor Gojong to attend the Second Hague Peace Conference in The Hague. He was commissioned to announce to the international community that Korea was an independent state and that the Japanese invasion was unlawful. The trio traveled for two months on the Trans-Siberian Railway to The Hague.

The Korean delegation was not officially invited, although the Netherlands initially had planned. However, the Japanese government was able to step in and succeeded in convincing the other delegates of the conference not to let Korea participate. A few days after Yi Jun protested against the decision, he was found dead in his room at the Hotel De Jong in the Wagenstraat, the Hague. His cause of death is unknown, but in South Korea it is assumed that he committed suicide due to the rejection by the international community. In time, however, Japanese newspapers suggested that he was killed by Japanese spies.