Five Eulsa Traitors

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Five Eulsa Traitors
Hangul:	을사 오적
Hanja:	乙巳五賊
Revised Romanization:	Eulsa ojeok
McCune-Reischauer:	Ŭlsa ojŏk

In Korean history, the Five Eulsa Traitors refers to those officials serving under Emperor Gojong who signed the Eulsa Treaty of 1905 against Gojong's wishes, stripping the Korean Empire of its sovereignty and making Korea a protectorate of Japan. The five officials were Education Minister Yi Wan-yong, Army Minister Yi Geun-taek (ko), Interior Minister Yi Ji-yong (ko), Foreign Affairs Minister Pak Je-sun (ko), and Agriculture, Commerce, and Industry Minister Gwon Jung-hyeon (ko).

Opposition to the Treaty was made by Prime Minister Han Gyu-seol and by the ministers of finance and justice, but they and the politically weakened Gojong were unable to effectively resist the Five, though he refused to sign the treaty himself, an act required to bring the treaty to conclusion per se Korean law. The Japanese government forced Prime Minister Han to step down and installed Park in his place.

In 2005, the Research Center for National Issues (민족문제연구소) identified the names of the five officials responsible for the Eulsa Treaty, as part of its efforts to compile a directory of individual Koreans who had collaborated with the Japanese before and during its colonial rule.