Person1850 – 1913

Seo Sang-don

Daegu merchant who proposed the National Debt Repayment Movement with Kim Gwang-je

A Catholic merchant who had been active in the Independence Club. In 1907, with Kim Gwang-je, head of the Gwangmunsa society in Daegu, he proposed that the people repay the nation's 13 million won foreign debt themselves. The campaign, which raised money by giving up tobacco and alcohol, spread nationwide with the backing of newspapers such as the Daehan maeil sinbo and the Hwangseong sinmun, but failed when the Residency-General obstructed it, for example by arresting Yang Gi-tak on a false charge of embezzling the funds.

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1 related event

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1907 – 1908National Debt Repayment Movementleader
A campaign to pay off Korea’s 13 million won debt to Japan with money raised by the people began in Daegu and spread across the country.

People who appear alongside

Yang Gi-tak1871 – 1938
Co-publisher of the Daehan maeil sinbo who led the National Debt Repayment Movement and the New People’s Association
Ernest T. Bethell1872 – 1909
British journalist who published the Daehan maeil sinbo with Yang Gi-tak, beyond the reach of Japanese censorship as a British subject

Themes this person appears in

DaeguAD 689 – 1960
Dalgubeol, where King Sinmun tried to move his capital — where the National Debt Repayment Movement and the 2·28 student protest began