Patriot of Independence · Enlightenment Movement · Grand Order of the Republic of Korea (Daehanmin-guk-jang) (1962)
| Life | 1859 ~ 1907 |
| Era | 근현대 |
| Clan | 전주 이씨 |
Yi Jun was dispatched as a special envoy to the Hague Peace Conference to expose the injustice of the Eulsa Treaty to the international community, and died there in the course of his mission.
Born in December 1859 (lunar calendar) in Bukcheong, Hamgyong Province, he had served as a prosecutor in the Korean Empire's Pyeongniwon court. In 1907, under secret orders from Emperor Gojong, he was sent as a special envoy—together with chief envoy Yi Sang-seol and interpreter Yi Wi-jong—to the Second Hague Peace Conference in the Netherlands, seeking to expose that the Eulsa Treaty had been forced upon Korea against the emperor's will. He died in the Hague in July 1907; the exact cause was never firmly established, though contemporaries such as Park Eun-sik and Yi Sang-seol described his death as brought on by overwhelming grief and indignation.