Kim Ok-kyun (1851-1894) was a Korean politician in the last decades of the Yi dynasty. He attempted to reform Korean politics and government along the line of the Meiji Japanese development.

A son of Kim Byng-t'e of the city of Kngju, Kim Ok-kyun passed with the highest score the state examination of the civil branch in 1872 and served as a middle-ranking government official in various capacities. The Korean government was then dominated by conservative and pro-Chinese officials who habitually followed the leadership of decaying Ch'ing China.

Kim was deeply impressed with the reform and modernization measures of Meiji Japan when he traveled to the neighboring country in 1881. He managed to visit Japan again as an adviser to the Korean envoy Pak Ynghyo, who negotiated a Japanese loan for the Korean government in 1883. Such ties between the Korean and Japanese governments were viewed with unveiled hostility by the pro-Chinese...