Modern newspapers have been published in Korea since 1881, with the first native Korean newspaper being published in 1883.
Joseon period
Chōsen shinpō
The history of modern newspapers in Korea begins in the Joseon period, with the publication of the Japanese newspaper Chōsen shinpō on December 10, 1881. It was the first modern newspaper to be published in Korea. Japan's own first newspaper, the 1861 , was published in English by an Englishman. Twelve issues of the Chōsen shinpō are known to exist. Its articles are published mostly in Japanese or Classical Chinese (which educated Koreans would have been able to read), but it did have one article that was known to have been published in the Korean script Hangul.
Japanese newspapers went on to have a significant influence in Korean newspaper history. However, after the Chōsen shinpō, new Japanese newspapers did not arise in Korea until around 1890. Scholar Park Yong-gu () speculates that it may have been because of worsened Japan–Korea ties after the 1882 Imo Incident.
Hansŏng sunbo and Hansŏng chubo
Korean emissaries visited China and Japan and noticed the proliferation of newspapers there. Park Yung-hyo convinced the Korean monarch Gojong to allow the creation of a Korean newspaper, and brought Japanese printing equipment and advisors to Seoul to create a paper. Hansŏng sunbo was published on October 31, 1883 as the first native Korean newspaper, although it was written in Classical Chinese. Subscriptions were sold to both public servants and private citizens, although likely public servant readers were more common. The newspaper stopped circulating in December 1884, more than a year after its launch, due to the Kapsin Coup. Hansŏng chubo () was founded as a weekly successor paper on January 25, 1886 and was eventually shut down in 1888 due to a lack of government funds.
Early Japanese publications in Korea The first private Korean newspaper would not emerge until 1896. Until then, most newspapers published in Korea were Japanese. Japanese traders and settlers began arriving in increasing numbers over time. +Japanese population by yearYearBusanWonsanIncheonSeoul18802,0662070018851,8962355628918902,7337081,55452218954,9531,3624,4181,519 In particular, Incheon's Japanese population saw a notable increase by 1890. Correspondingly, Japanese newspapers began to emerge there for the settlers, with the Jinsen Keijō kakushū shōhō (later called Chōsen shinpō, unrelated to the 1881 publication) being founded there around that time. This and other Japanese papers in the 1890s often primarily wrote on news and statistics about commerce, with current events being a secondary concern.
The 1894–1895 First Sino-Japanese War was a significant period for the few Japanese newspapers in Korea. The Japanese government intervened directly in the affairs of the papers, and even issued an order (No. 134) that newspapers consult authorities before publishing anything potentially controversial about the war. Some papers went on hiatus, potentially due to the war, around this time. In May 1895, the Japanese consulate in Korea received confirmation that it could censor newspapers in Korea like the mainland Japanese government could in Japan.
A notable population among Japanese settlers in Korea were aggressive young men often dubbed (). In Korea, they had the right of extraterritoriality and could not be punished under Korean law. Many committed violent crimes, and felt emboldened by their status. A number of them settled into careers as journalists, with many having little prior experience in the field. Closely adjacent to this group was Adachi Kenzō, who founded the newspapers Chōsen jihō in Busan in 1894, and Kanjō shinpō in Seoul around 1894 or 1895. The papers were initially popular with Koreans, as they published general and useful information. Their technology and style likely inspired and contributed to the later proliferation of Korean newspapers. However, after Adachi enlisted all of the Kanjō shinpō staff to assassinate the Korean queen in late 1895, sentiment shifted against Adachi's papers and Japan in general. Japanese newspaper began to publish more overtly along Japanese lines, criticizing Korean culture and politicians.
Tongnip sinmun
On April 7, 1896, the first private Korean newspaper, Tongnip sinmun, was founded. It was also the first newspaper to publish purely in Hangul, which was revolutionary for the time. It also was a significant early adopter of spaces between words. It published in both Korean and English, with its English name being The Independent. True to its name, it promoted Korean independence activism and promoted reforms in order to prevent Korea's future subjugation.
Korean Empire period
Rise of private Korean newspapers More Korean papers soon followed the Tongnip sinmun, with the following being founded in 1898 alone: , Cheguk sinmun, , Hwangsŏng sinmun, and . Around this time, the Tongnip sinmun increased its publication frequency from every other day to daily.
A significant majority of the Korean population was illiterate around this time. In some instances, entire villages shared single subscriptions, and information was relayed orally to others. Furthermore, access to printers, ink, and paper was highly limited; all of this equipment was usually imported to Korea. There were reportedly no major paper mills in Korea in 1905. The Korean government attempted to assist various newspapers by allowing subscription fees to be collected at local government offices.
At the time, Korea had no legislation in place to manage these newspapers. They published critically about foreign interference in Korea, and also criticized the Korean government for falling prey to the interference. For example, in February 1898, the Tongnip sinmun leaked information about the Russian Empire demanding ownership of Busan's Chŏryŏngdo from the Korean government. The emissaries of Russia, France, and Japan protested the leak, and demanded that Gojong enact legislation to regulate Korean newspapers. In October, Gojong issued an order to draft such a law. The drafted a bill modeled after Japan's 1891 newspaper ordinance. The bill was seen as too harsh, and Korean journalists protested it. The bill never ended up taking effect; formal restrictions on Korean newspapers were only implemented beginning in 1907.
During the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War, the Korean press leaked Japanese military movements and secrets on a number of occasions. Japan submitted a number of complaints to Gojong, and the Japanese military threatened to intervene and censor the papers by force. Several newspapers had some of their articles censored. In protest of this, they began to practice what was dubbed "brick wall newspaper" () tactics, where they printed censored articles backwards.
Japanese response The Japanese legation, which had once held significant sway over the Korean media landscape, began making greater efforts to compete. It invested and intervened in the affairs of its existing newspapers, and provided funding for the creation of new papers. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, various Japanese newspapers were founded in major urban centers, including Wonsan, Mokpo, Gunsan, and Daegu. They were rarely published as daily papers, and some of them were published for only small Japanese populations. Park Yong-gu theorizes that their publication was meant to promote community identity and ties, as well as to provide careers for Japanese immigrants.
Upon Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Korea was forced to be put under the indirect rule of the Japanese Resident-General of Korea. Resident-general Itō Hirobumi began work on changing the press landscape of Korea, as well as influencing international opinion on Korea's eventual colonization. He set up a network of interlinked media presences in Tokyo, Seoul, and New York City. For English-language press, Itō worked with his Anglo-Irish acquaintance John Russell Kennedy. +Japanese newspapers and population in Korea after indirect ruleYear# newspapersPopulation19041131,09319051442,46019062783,31519073498,001190832126,168190934146,147191028171,543 Meanwhile, the Japanese population and number of Japanese newspapers in Korea nearly doubled from 1905 to 1906. Newspapers began to be founded for the first time in various Korean cities, with the first newspapers in Jeonju, Masan, and Daejeon being Japanese. By contrast, the only regional Korean-language newspaper that was founded during this period was the Gyeongnam Ilbo. +1910 circulation numbers for regional Japanese newspapersLocationNewspaper nameCirculationIncheonChōsen Shinpō8,529DaejeonSannan shinpō360BusanChōsen jihō2,412BusanFuzan nippō2,400MasanMasan shinpō841DaeguTaikyū shinbun1,150GwangjuKōshū shinpō514MokpoMoppo shinpō732JeonjuZenshū shinpō480GunsanGenzan nippō649PyongyangHeijō nippō852PyongyangHeijō shinbun833Chinnamp'oChinnanpo shinpō750SinuijuŌkō nippō485WonsanGenzan mainichi shinbun1,556HamhungMinyū shinbun946ChongjinKitakan shinbun1,567 In several cities, even those with smaller markets, multiple Japanese newspapers formed, which led to competition between them. Several regional newspapers were acquired, merged, or split off from each other over the course of the 1900s. They mostly published in Japanese, although several of them published some articles in Korean. Historian Park Yong-gu notes that this was primarily done to profit from the Korean market as well, although some articles did attempt to justify Japan's takeover of Korea. However, Park also argues that the proliferation of Korean-language articles in Japanese papers possibly negatively impacted the creation of native Korean newspapers. In Daegu in 1906, the Korean publisher Kwangmunsa received permission to create a newspaper, but never ended up doing so. This was possibly because the local Japanese paper began publishing articles in Korean around this time, which may have decreased demand for a new Korean newspaper.
Park points out that the local Japanese newspapers were sometimes troublesome for Japanese government; in several instances, newspapers were suspended or closed because they published pieces critical of the government, and regulations were increasingly applied to their management. +Punishments towards Japanese newspapers by the resident-generalNameDatePunishmentNotesTaikyū nippōDecember 1906Publication suspendedPublished a critical articleTaikyū nichi nichi shinbunFebruary 1907Extradited to Japan ()Taikyū nichi nichi shinbunApril 10, 1908Extradited to Japan ()Suspended for two years afterwardsChōsen TimesApril 17, 1908Publication suspendedFor a critical article, lifted on April 23Chōsen TimesMay 23, 1908Sales suspendedFuzan nippōMay 26, 1908Sales suspendedChōsen TimesOctober 3, 1908Sales suspendedRevealed Japanese troop movementsChōsen shinpōOctober 3, 1908Sales suspendedRevealed Japanese troop movementsMoppo shinpōMarch 3, 1910Sales suspendedFor disturbing governanceHeijō nippōApril 1910Sales suspendedHeijō nippōJune 12, 1910Sales suspendedFor an article about Japan's takeover of KoreaFuzan nippōAugust 5, 1910Publication suspendedFor an article about current eventsChōsen shinpōAugust 5, 1910Publication suspendedChōsen shinbunAugust 10, 1910Sales suspendedFor disturbing governance, lifted on August 12.Heijō nippōAugust 11, 1910Sales suspended, publication suspendedFor disturbing governance, lifted on August 14.Heijō shinbunAugust 26, 1910Publication suspended, sales suspendedFor disturbing governance, lifted on August 27. The Japanese resident-general continued financially supporting various Japanese newspapers in Korea, although Park Yong-gu was uncertain about when this practice stopped. Park theorized that, over time, the need for support decreased, as Japanese newspapers attracted more readers and advertisers.
The Korea Daily News and newspaper censorship