Person1835 – 1922
Kim Yun-sik
Moderate reformer who led students and artisans to Tianjin as envoy (yeongseonsa) in 1881
In 1881, as head of the Yeongseonsa mission, he took 38 students and craftsmen to the Tianjin arsenal in Qing China to learn modern arms manufacture. Lack of funds and the Imo Incident cut the mission short after a year, but it led to the founding of the Gigichang arsenal in Seoul in 1883. Holding to the idea of "Eastern ways, Western machines," he valued ties with Qing and favoured gradual reform, and served as foreign minister during the Gabo Reform.