Hong In-geun: Overseas diplomatic missions of the Korean Empire

Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Records, *Overseas Diplomatic Missions of the Korean Empire*. Based on confidential documents discovered at the Diplomatic Archives of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the author, Hong In-geun, currently serving as a director and research fellow at the Institute for International Korean Studies, provides a detailed account of how Imperial Japan handled not only the Korean Empire Legation in the United States but also the diplomatic missions established in France, the United Kingdom, China, and Japan. The book begins with a secret document in which the Japanese Minister to Korea recommended the closure of the Korean Empire's overseas missions to the Japanese government, and is composed of instructions from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reports from Japanese legations, and proposals regarding the closure of Korean Empire legations and consulates in nine countries. It reveals that the closure of the Korean Empire's overseas missions—the starting point of the conspiracy aimed at Japan's annexation of the Korean Empire—began one year and two months before the signing of the Eulsa Treaty, and vividly proves facts recorded in Japanese diplomatic documents, such as the stories between Korea and Japan surrounding the closure of the Korean Legation in China. In addition to translations of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs' secret documents, the book includes the author's paper, *Japan's Closure of the Republic of Korea's Diplomatic Missions*, to aid in understanding the overall flow of events.

Korean title: 대한제국의 해외공관

Korean author: 홍인근

Korean publisher: 나남

ISBN-13: 9788930086400