Yu Kil-chun

Infobox Korean name
hanja=兪吉濬
hangul=유길준
rr=Yu Gil-jun
mr=Yu Kil-chun [http://korean.go.kr/uw/dispatcher/bbs/search/dictionary/dic_sear.appl?att1=%EC%9C%A0%EA%B8%B8%EC%A4%80&Search.x=0&Search.y=0&count=0&old_in=0]
hanjaho=矩堂
hangulho=구당
rrho=Gudang
hanjaja=聖武
hangulja=성무
rrja=Seongmu

Yu Kil-chun (1856–1914 ) was a Korean reformist and politician of Korea's late Joseon Dynasty.

Born in Seoul, he went to Meiji Japan in 1881 to study at Keio University and returned the following year. He also traveled to the United States, where he studied mathematics at Governor Dummer Academy in 1884cite web
authorlink =
title = 한국역대인물종합정보시스템
publisher = The Academy of Korean Studies
date =
url = http://people.aks.ac.kr/front/dirservice/ppl/viewDocumentPpl.jsp?pRecordID=PPL_6JOc_A1856_1_0007938
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2006-11-21] , as well as to several European countries, after which he was accused of supporting the "Gaehwadang" ( _ko. linktext|開|化|黨, ‘party for enlightenment’ [http://aks.ac.kr/glossary/glossary_detail.asp?g_code=241&page=8] ). In detention, he wrote a book on his foreign learnings (서유견문, _ko. linktext|西|遊|見|聞) using the Korean mixed script to write in Korean as opposed to Literary Chinese, which was written using Chinese characters exclusively and would have been normal to use at that time.

Yu worked for Kim Hongjip's government that intended to modernise Korea. When Kim was killed and his cabinet disbanded, Yu fled the country and took exile in Japan to return in 1907 when Sunjeong pardoned him.

When Korea was under Japanese rule, Yu declined the "danshaku" title he was awarded by the Government of Japan as part of a new Korean peerage system Japan designed after its own British-modeled Kazoku system.

References