Artifacts from Japanese colonial rule go on display at National Museum of Korea

The National Museum of Korea will reopen its revamped permanent gallery devoted to the Korean Empire Friday, following a nine-month closure.

The gallery brings together 65 objects — including Emperor Gojong’s royal portrait, a state seal used for imperial edicts, textbooks and administrative documents — to examine the empire's efforts to defend its sovereignty and navigate a new global order amid expanding imperialism.

Returning to public display after seven years, Emperor Gojong's portrait anchors a gallery that illustrates the empire's attempt to rapidly embrace Western culture and modernize.

This drive is documented through administrative and diplomatic records, textbooks, newspapers and magazines produced during the imperial period.

"While there is a perception that the Korean Empire was an empire in name only, there is also an opinion that the Korean Empire was precisely a determined drive toward modernity," Museum Director Yoo Hong-jun said during a Thursday press preview.

"It was only frustrated because historical circumstances worked against it, but it was an attempt to mo ...