Interestingly, the proposal to divide the Korean Peninsula to the 38th parallel was first included in the Protocol to this agreement. The concept reappeared many years later, as we all know. The protocol summarized the results of the Russian-Japanese negotiations following the assassination of the Korean queen in October 1895 by Japanese agents and the king`s flight to the Russian mission building. The two sides agreed on the return of the king. The protocol provided for joint Russian-Japanese assistance to Korea to obtain foreign loans if assistance was needed. It also provided for consultations between Russia and Japan on any Korea-related issues that might arise in the future. Essentially, this agreement reflected Tsarist Russia`s desire to limit dominant Japanese influence in Korea, a situation that had occurred after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95. In 1898, however, the agreement was supplemented by a new protocol in which Russia was obliged not to hinder the development of Japan-Korea trade and industrial relations. The Yamagata-Lobanov Agreement (山縣・ロバノフ協定, Yamagata-Robanofu Kyōtei) (Russian: Протокол Лобанова — Ямагаты), signed in St. Petersburg on June 9, 1896, was the second of three agreements signed between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire on disputes over their sphere of influence over Korea. The agreement contained two non-public provisions. In the first, Japan and Russia reaffirmed their mutual right to send additional troops to Korea in the event of major unrest, and in the second, both countries reaffirmed their right to station troops in Korea until Korea has its own modern army equipped for such unrest. When Yamagata accepted the terms of the agreement with Lobanov, he did not know that a few days earlier, the Russians had signed the Li-Lobanov Treaty with China, a de facto alliance against Japan in which Russia received unlimited access to Manchuria and a lease agreement on the Liaotung Peninsula.
[3] The king trusted Russia. Based on his naïve trust, his cabinet gave Russia many economic rights in the hope that it would help protect its security. However, global politics does not work that way. While King Joseon remained in the Russian legation with a false hope of supporting Russia, the Russian Empire and Meiji Japan struck a secret agreement at the coronation ceremonies of Russian Tsar Nicholas II (the Yamagata-Lobanov Agreement of 1896). In the agreement, two countries confirmed their equal influence on the Korean Peninsula and guaranteed the co-protectorate state of Joseon Korea. The deal, which turned the Korean Peninsula into a buffer state, was the result of compromises between Russia and Japan. Russia has just acquired the Liaodong Peninsula. .
