Second Envoy Mission and A Strategy for Korea
Envoy Kim Hong-jip brought back from Japan the Qing diplomat Huang Zunxian’s A Strategy for Korea, which urged Korea to align with China, Japan and the United States against Russia.
Family of Huang Zunxian · Public domain · Source
The book argued that to check Russia’s southward advance Korea should "be close to China, bind itself to Japan and ally with America". It influenced the government’s decision to establish relations with the United States in 1882.
The government now pressed ahead with reform: it created the Office for Extraordinary State Affairs (Tongni gimu amun) in late 1880, and the next year organized the new-style Special Skills Force (Byeolgigun), sent an inspection mission to Japan and students to Tianjin. When the book circulated, Yi Man-son and Confucian scholars of Yeongnam protested fiercely in a mass memorial.