Yi Beom-yun

Yi Beom-yun (李範允, December 29, 1856 – October 20, 1940) was an independence activist of the late Joseon period who advocated restoration of the monarchy. In the Russian Maritime Province, he organized an armed independence army and pursued operations to invade domestic Korea. Under the Korean Empire, he served as the Northern Border Gando Administrator under the Byeongye Gyeongmu-seo (border police office). He was of the Jeonju (全州) clan.

Birth and early life

Yi Beom-yun was born on December 29, 1856, in Gyeonggi Province, Goyang County (present-day Sinseol-dong, Dongdaemun-gu), as the son of Yi Gyeong-ha (李景夏), a military official of the late Joseon period who had served as Grand General of the Military Division. He was a younger cousin, six degrees removed, of Yi Beom-jin (李範晋), a politician and diplomat of the late Korean Empire period, and a paternal great-uncle, seven degrees removed, of Yi Wi-jong (李瑋鍾), a diplomat of the late Korean Empire period. He spent his early childhood for a time in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, and later grew up in Hanseong. His career from 1875 to 1880, when he stayed for five years in Yanji in Manchuria under the Qing dynasty, and from his entry into government service through hereditary recommendation in 1887 until his appointment as Gando Inspector in 1902, after the establishment of the Byeongye Gyeongmu-seo amid disputes with the Qing dynasty over the Gando issue in the late Korean Empire period, is not very well known.

Public service

He was dispatched to Gando, and the following year (1903) he was appointed Gando Administrator, taking sole charge of administrative affairs concerning Koreans in the Gando region. Yi Beom-yun organized the Sapodae (私砲隊), a self-defense force of local hunters in the region, and this Sapodae later became one of the foundations of the righteous army movement in the Gando region.

In 1904, while he was serving as Gando Administrator, the Russo-Japanese War broke out, and he allied with the Russian army and fought against the Japanese army in the North Hamgyong region. After the Russo-Japanese War ended in Japanese victory, in 1906 Yi Beom-yun led his followers into exile in Russian territory.