Today's News

In July 1907, the Japanese imperialists fabricated the “Jongmi Seven-Point Treaty” and put forward the forcible dissolution of the Korean army as an urgent task and buckled down to its enforcement. It was because they were unable to turn Korea into a complete colony and realize its permanent occupation of the country as long as the Korean army existed.

What the Japanese imperialists feared most was the resistance of the Korean army.

An anti-Japanese uprising was planned in the Korean army at that time when the Japanese imperialists were forcing Emperor Kojong to abdicate before fabricating the “Jongmi Seven-Point Treaty”.

Meanwhile, the royal guards composed of the Pyongyang corps were preparing for an uprising to capture the palace and repel the Japanese imperialist aggressor forces. However, the Japanese imperialists spied out the plan and seized the palace 30 minutes before the time of the uprising, thereby foiling the plan.

Much perturbed by the incident, the Japanese imperialists tried to dissolve the Korean army as soon as the “Jongmi Seven-Point Treaty” was cooked up.

The Japanese invented a crafty method to weaken the anti-Japanese spirit of the Korean army. It was the “army readjustment plan”. On the basis of this, the Japanese imperialists fabricated the imperial edict on dissolving the Korean army on the night of July 31 1907.

The Japanese imperialists set August 1 as the date of the dissolution of the Korean army and planned to disband the five royal guard infantry battalions, a cavalry unit and an artillery unit firstly, the eight battalions in the provinces secondly and the military police, brigade headquarters, the army service corps and the military band thirdly.

At the dawn of August 1, the Japanese imperialists were on a tight alert.

Major spots were occupied by the Japanese aggressor forces and military police, and units of the Japanese imperialist army mobilized to occupy the barracks of the Korean army were on standby.

The training ground designated as the place for dissolving the Korean army was already surrounded by a mixed unit of the Japanese aggressor forces.

That day, the Korean soldiers turned out in the struggle against the Japanese imperialists. They armed themselves by assaulting the arsenal and ammunition depot occupied by the Japanese imperialists and fought fierce battles against them.

When the revolting soldiers were fighting a battle against the Japanese aggressors, the Korean army was dissolved at the training ground. Many soldiers refused to obey the Japanese imperialists but were left bare-handed under a tight siege by them.

Thus, the Japanese imperialists forcibly disbanded the Korean army by means of fraud and trickery.

The news about the uprising of the royal guards spread in a flash and the soldiers of the Korean army units in other parts of the country rose up in an anti-Japanese resistance in response to it. However, the Japanese imperialists forcibly dissolved all these units from August 3 to September 3 by making every desperate effort.

The forcible dissolution of the Korean army was another violation of sovereignty committed by the Japanese imperialists during their military occupation of Korea.

The Japanese imperialists’ attempt to eliminate the possibility of the Korean army’s turning into an anti-Japanese force by forcibly disbanding it and to prevent the expansion and strengthening of the volunteer army led to an unexpected result. The revolting soldiers who rose up against the forcible disbandment of the Korean army turned into anti-Japanese volunteer units, bringing about an overall enhancement of the anti-Japanese forces.

After forcibly disbanding the Korean army, the Japanese imperialists suppressed the anti-Japanese volunteers’ movement by mobilizing more aggressor forces and, in the course of this, massacred a large number of people.

The Japanese imperialists forcibly disbanded the Korean army and inflicted untold misfortune and pain upon the Korean people by means of fraud and armed suppression in a bid to realize their aggressive ambition and turn Korea into their permanent colony. Their atrocities are an unpardonable crime against humanity and they can never escape a stern punishment by history.