1920년대 전반 국민협회의 정치활동과 참정권청원운동의 한계

Abstract

The Kungmin Hyŏphoe (National Society) conducted their political activities in the 1920s at a political junction where the pro-Japanese group desired to lead Korean society by acquiring suffrage and the colonial government authorities developed strategies to conciliate Korean people with their inland extension policy. The Kungmin Hyŏphoe carried out the Petition Movement for Suffrage, when the colonial government began to actively support the Korean political group who had asserted the complete integration of Japan and Korea. Soon, however, the very factors that permitted the political influence of the Kungmin Hyŏphoe caused complications between the pro-Japanese group and the colonial ruling power. If suffrage were to be the central to the inland extension policy, it could ultimately mean the end of colonial rule itself. As the Kungmin Hyŏphoe continued more extensive petition campaign for suffrage while the colonial government authorities began to restrain it, there grew a conflict between them. The Government General of Korea criticized that the Kungmin Hyŏphoe focused only on their political demand without cooperating with ruling policies, while the Kungmin Hyŏphoe thought that the colonial government’s policies were wrong. Such a sharp conflict was resolved as the Kungmin Hyŏphoe withdrew the Petition Movement for Suffrage, but thereafter its political influence fell into decline. Such a contradictory result came from the fundamental limitations of the colonial ruling system that could not embrace even the most internalized pro-Japanese group’s political demands.