이상설 李相卨
Independence activist and scholar; special envoy to The Hague
| Life | 1870 ~ 1917 |
| Era | 근현대 |
| Clan | 경주 이씨 |
Life & career
Yi Sang-seol (李相卨, 1870–1917) was a scholar and official of the Korean Empire and an independence activist. A Confucian scholar who served as head of Seonggyungwan and as Uijeongbu Chamchan (councillor), he fiercely resisted the Eulsa Treaty when it was forcibly concluded in 1905.
In 1907, receiving a secret order from Emperor Gojong, he was dispatched together with Yi Jun and Yi Wi-jong as a special envoy to the International Peace Conference held in The Hague, the Netherlands, where he appealed to the international community about the injustice of the Eulsa Treaty and the sovereignty of the Korean Empire. Because of this, he was sentenced to death in absentia at home and could not return.
Afterward he founded the Seojeon Seosuk (瑞甸書塾) school in North Gando to promote national education, organized the Seongmyeonghoe and the Gwoneophoe in the Maritime Province (Primorye), and was elevated as Jeongtongnyeong (正統領, president) of the Korean Restoration Army Government, leading the overseas independence movement until his death for the nation in 1917 in the Russian Maritime Province.