By Robert Neff
Traveling clothes in the late 19th century / Robert Neff CollectionIn early 1897, eight young men quietly left Seoul on a secret mission for the king. These men were Amhaeng-eosa (Secret Royal Inspectors) and had been dispatched "to different provinces to look after the condition of the people and to administer justice to immoral classes." As their name implies, they traveled in secret (sometimes in disguise) until they arrived at their target destination and, after examining the conditions of the populace, revealed themselves to the local government.
Often these agents did not survive their missions ― wild animals and bandits preyed upon them on the lonelier stretches of highways, and sometimes corrupt officials (learning of the agent's identity) hired assassins to cut them down in dark places or poison their food before they could arrive.