Show INTO A DEATH TRAP I FATE OF A KOREAN WHO DODGED ASSASSINS FOR TEN YEARS r W A Conspirator Lured From His Place of Comparative Security bj tlitpErpinlse of y Money and Political Power = A True Story as Startling as Ono of Gahor nuB Gabon never wrote avetective novel nov-el tat had in it a more jtartling story of criminal revenge than Has the following follow-ing true story from China The assassination assas-sination at Shanghai of Kim Ok Kim the Korean conspirator was the climax of 10 years of sleepless pursuit of this refugee by emissaries of the Korean government gov-ernment It seems that Kim who was tho leader lead-er in tho Seoul palace plot of 1884 and fled to Japan to avoid death recently received letters from an old Korean exile in Shanghai offering to pay him a large sum that had been due many years if he would go to Shanghai About the same time Kim received an invitation to go to Shanghai from Lord Li formerly former-ly Chinese minister to Japan specially instructed by Viceroy Li Hung Chang This step was taken by the viceroy it is assumed owing to the increasing influence in-fluence of Russia in Korean affairs and he felt the necessity of an alliance with Japan as a setoff against the encroachments encroach-ments of Russia For this reason the attitude of China toward Japan in connection con-nection with Korean matters has become much milder of late as may be instanced in-stanced in the appointment of a muoh more easy going minister in the place of Yuan the late representative of China in Japan With this change of policy the support given by China to the Ming family has sensibly declined and their influence has in consequence waned Lord Li intended to have held a conference with Kim with the idea of drawing up a programme of progressive progress-ive party politics which it was proposed to introduce again into Korea Kim saw the means of gaining a small fortune and of increasing his prestige pres-tige with China and Jajjan Ho saw that the latter might JW tD his return to power So he ignored the danger and started for Shanghai Whether the assassin as-sassin accompanied him is not known but the day after he reached Shanghai Kim was killed in a foreign hotel The assassin Kwo Sho was caught and held for trial Ho belongs to a family fam-ily said to have held an official position for generations in the peninsular kingdom king-dom He came to Japan in 1888 almost al-most resourceless and earned a difficult livelihood by various devices Nevertheless Never-theless in 1890 he managed to proctw money for a trip to Europe where k spent three years often encountering great hardship but always finding means to live without recourse to charity char-ity Returning to Japan he showed a keen interest in politics Those who mow him best declare he is an adventurer adven-turer who would undertake any crime for sufficient reward On the same day that Kim was killed a plan was devised for murdering Boku Ei Ko another Korean who had solicited solicit-ed funds for a school in Tokyo for training train-ing Korean youth One of the students Tai Gen told his fellows that he had been ordered by Li Itsu Shoku a Korean Ko-rean who claimed to have instructions from the king at Seoul to murder Bo ku The lad hesitated because the victim vic-tim had been good to him Li and the students were arrest dAfter d-After Kim fled from Korea repeated efforts were made by the Korean government govern-ment to procure his extradition but the Japanese foreign office refused to entertain enter-tain any such demand obviously opposed op-posed as it was to the practice of civilized civi-lized nations For a time the refugee was prudent enough to avoid any act that might shake the Japanese governments govern-ments decision or endanger his own privilege of asylum But as time went by ho acquired assurance and began or was supposed to have begun fresh designs de-signs against the public peace of the country The Japanese authorities had then to choose between running the risk of troublesome complications with Korea or ordering Kim to leave Japan or removing him to some place where his machinations would be practically powerless The first of these courses would have been plainly unstatesmaur like the second would have involved Kims death and the third was open to several objections Nevertheless the last course was chosen Kim was sent to the Bonin islands Here he lived a comfortable and uneventful life for some years Finally it was decided that the climate cli-mate of the Bonins did not agree with Kim and he went to Tokyo An impression im-pression constantly prevailed among the Japanese that Kim could never rest without making some final attempt to carry out the programme which failed so signally in 1884 It is said that in his early days he three times dissipated the whole of his resources in gambling and that his speculative tendency did not disappear but only took a different direction in later years In his own country and in China ha was always regarded as a factor of potential po-tential magnitude in tho oriental question ques-tion The anxiety of his government about him was shown by repeated attempts at-tempts to get possession of his person and even it is rumored by more than one commission to assassinate him A man of considerable attainments and wide erudition he possessed also the gift of winning not only confidence but sympathy During his residence in Iap qw 9Fp y4 r p m R3 nvata anusaxn wore the Japanese ow trume and spoke the Japanese language fluentlyhe made the acquaintance Of many foreigners New York Telegram |