This thesis analyzes how government officials and the elite in the early modern time perceived railroad system. In 1876, Kim Gi-su, who was dispatched to Japan as Susinsa after Korea opened its port, came to observe railroad system for the first time with awe and curiosity. Josa Sichaldan acknowledged the efficiency of railroad system as a means of transportation but pointed out the practical issue regarding provision of the necessary capital to institutionalize this system. Yu Gil-jun, who observed and experienced the modern Western culture in America, tried to understand railroad system from a more detailed and objective perspective. He did not only elaborately explain the history and technicality of railroad system but also the problem of utilizing private property in the process and how to solve this problem.
Despite these analyses and efforts, eventually, it was the foreign power that established the railroad system in Korea. Both Gyeongin railway and Geyongui railway were constructed by Japan. There was a movement among the Koreans to construct railway on their own but it wasn’t realized. Due to the Japanese government’s scheme and the Korean government’s incapacity, the railway running through Korean peninsula fell under Japanese control and it later led to the Japan’s colonializing of Korea.
The railroad system in Korea shows the typical duplicity of modern railroad system. As the construction of railroad started, the Korean press advertised and provided information on railroad system in their distinctive tones and from their own perspectives. ≪Dongnipsinmun≫ described railroad as an useful system of modern culture and the basis of civilization, praising the economic benefit and the spread of advanced civilization that it will bring. It didn’t recognize its invasive and exploitative nature.
≪Hwangseongsinmun≫ conformed to the international order of imperialism and the modernization, but at the same time, was concerned about losing the control over the railroad system and the potential of Japanese colonial power cornering the market. Simultaneously, it criticized the public’s ignorance and stressed the need to enlighten the public in order to restore sovereignty and national competence.
≪Daehanmaeilsinbo≫ addressed how unconditional ‘assimilation’ to and ‘imitation’ of Western civilization can endanger the nation by exposing it to exploitation and invasion, as it disclosed the Japanese exploitation in the process of railway construction. It suggested that we accept the railways that were already built and use the significance that railroad system has as a modern power to revolutionize and restore sovereignty.