The Independent founded

Seo Jae-pil launched The Independent, the first private newspaper, printed in Hangul and English; its founding day, 7 April, is Korea’s Newspaper Day.

Seo Jae-pil, back from exile in the United States after the Gapsin Coup, published it with government funding. It first came out every other day in four pages, three in Hangul and one in English as The Independent; the Hangul pages used spaces between words.

It aimed to enlighten the public and build a sense of national independence, while the English page informed foreigners about Korea. Three months later Seo and others founded the Independence Club, whose activities the paper publicised. It became a daily in 1898 and closed in 1899.