Ko Tŭkchong
Korean diplomat
Ko Tŭkchong (Korean: 고득종; Hanja: 高得宗; 1388–1452) was a Korean scholar-official of the Joseon period in the 14th century.
He was also diplomat and ambassador, representing Joseon interests in the tongsinsa (diplomatic missions) to the Ashikaga shogunate in Japan.
1439 mission to Japan
King Sejong dispatched a diplomatic mission to Japan in 1439. This embassy to court of Ashikaga Yoshinori was led by Ko Tŭkchong. Its purpose was to foster and maintain neighborly relations (Kyorin diplomacy); and assistance from the shogun was sought in suppressing the pirate raids from those known in Korean as waegu or in Japanese as the wakō.
The Japanese hosts may have construed this mission as tending to confirm a Japanocentric world order. Ko Tŭkchong's actions were more narrowly focused in negotiating protocols for Joseon-Japan diplomatic relations.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ko Tŭkchong” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.