| Yu Kil-chun | |
|---|---|
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 유길준 |
| Hanja | 兪吉濬 |
| Revised Romanization | Yu Gil-jun |
| McCune–Reischauer | Yu Kil-chun[1] |
| Pen name | |
| Hangul | 구당 |
| Hanja | 矩堂 |
| Revised Romanization | Gudang |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kudang |
| Courtesy name | |
| Hangul | 성무 |
| Hanja | 聖武 |
| Revised Romanization | Seongmu |
| McCune–Reischauer | Sŏngmu |
Yu Kil-chun (1856–1914) was a Korean reformist and politician of Korea's late Joseon Dynasty.
Born in Seoul, Yu went to Meiji Japan in 1881 to study at Keio University, returning the following year to Korea. He subsequently traveled to the United States in 1884 to study mathematics at Governor Dummer Academy[2][3], as well as to several European countries, after which he was accused of supporting the Gaehwadang (開化黨, ‘enlightenment party').[4] In detention, he wrote a book on his foreign learnings entitled Seoyu Gyeonmun (서유견문, 西遊見聞) ("Observations on Travels in the West"), for which he used the Korean mixed script as opposed to Literary Chinese, which was written using exclusively Chinese characters, and which was the normal writing method of period literati-officialdom.
Korea's King Gojong asserted that Yu was a criminal involved in the assassination of Queen Min.
During the period 1894-95, Yu worked for the government of prime minister Kim Hongjip that intended to modernise Korea. When Kim was killed and his cabinet disbanded in 1895, Yu fled the country for exile in Japan, returning to Korea only in 1907 after he was pardoned by King Sunjeong.
In 1910, when Korea was annexed by Imperial Japan, Yun started a movement against the annexation. Yu declined the danshaku title he was awarded by the Government of Japan as part of its new Korean peerage system designed after its own British-modeled Kazoku system.