p109[T]he new minister(Miura) feared that the queen's comeback augured a deterioration of Japanese influence.
p110 Within a few weeks of his arrival in Seoul, Miura found help from an unexpected quarter. The Taewongun, eased out of power by Inoue kaoru the year before, continued to fulminate against his old rivals , the Mins......With the help of the Japanese, he said, he would like to reform the court.....Assured that the Taewongun would serve as front man, Miura----together with Okamoto Ryounosuke, a legation staff member, and Ksunose , military attache----made plans for a coup to overthrow Min.
p111 When the coup finally took place early the following morning, the TAewongun was escorted to the palace by members of the Japanese legation guard as well as hullyhondae troops ....In the melee that followed Yi Kyong-sik, the minister of the royal household was killed. and a party of Japanese burst into the queen's chamber, where they stabbed to death the queen and two of her ladies-in -waiting. The queen's corpse was dragged immediately into the nearby garden doused with Kerosene, and cremated. With the Taewongun ensconced in the palace and Japanese troops in control of the court, a new set of pro-Japanese ministers were installed.....
it was purely the outcome of Miura's own "diplomatic methods.' Indeed, MIura attempted to conceal the real facts not only from the diplomatic community in Seoul but from his own home government.The Abacus and the Sword
Bruce Cumings
p121 [H]e(MIura) thought that the Taewongun, once again, could be counted on to hate the queen enough to be coaxed back into the government. In October 1895 a Japanese guard unit went to meet the Taewongun outside the West Gate of Seoul, to escort him back to Kyongbok Palace. A Korean "training unit" accompanied this retinue, and when it reached the palace, grabbed Queen Min before she could run away. and stabbed and doused her with kerosene and lit a match, hoping to destroy the evidence of their foul deed.Korea's Place in the Sun
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