In Korea at the time, the government had been divided between two factions even since the Ganghwa Island incident: the 'Conservative Party' (also known as the Sadaedang, or 'Serve the Great' Party) which advocated that Korea should remain a vassal state of Qing China and 'the Gaehwadang' (Progressive Party, also called the Independence Party) that was anxious about the current situation and hoped to modernize Korea.
江華島事件以来、当時の朝鮮は、朝鮮は清朝の冊封国（または冊封国）としての朝鮮のままであるべきであるという「守旧派」（事大党ともいう）と、現状を憂い朝鮮の近代化を目指す「開化派」（独立党ともいう）とに分かれていた。