His art name was Jamgok (잠곡) and Hoejeongdang (회정당), his courtesy name was Baekhu (백후), and his posthumous name was Munjeong (문정; 文貞).

His great-great-grandfather Kim Shik (김식, 金湜, 1482–1520), who had supported Jo Gwangjo at Seonggyungwan (National Confucian Academy) by criticizing then ministers in power, was sacrificed during the literati purge in the year of Gimyo (기묘사화, 己卯士禍, 1519).

In 1588, his grandfather, Kim Bi (김비; 金棐) was appointed as head of Gangdong-gun, Pyeongan-do, his father moved to Gangdong with family members.

There, Kim Yuk was taught by Cho Ho-ik [ko] (조호익/曺好益), who had studied under a great scholar, Yi Hwang and who was currently in exile at Gangdong.

In 1610 as a student of the Sungkyunkwan, he submitted the petition to King Gwanghaegun three times to forgive and restore his resentful teacher Seong Hon and to reinstate Five Wise Men ousted in the previous literati purge.

The next year, he initiated a campaign at the Sungkyunkwan to expel Jeong In-hong in power from the Registry of Confucian Literati (청금록; 靑襟錄), who had criticized the great scholar Yi Hwang.

During that period from 1613 to 1623, Kim Yuk, denying King's pardoning, managed to get along, and experienced and witnessed the real peasant life in the countryside.

In 1624, Kim Yuk passed Gwageo, the literary civil service examination, receiving officially the highest marks.

During his public career, Kim Yuk was assigned to the diplomatic mission to visit Beijing, capital city of the Ming dynasty three times.

In Beijing, he heard of the outbreak of the Byeongja invasion of the Qing Army (병자호란; 丙子胡亂) and the humiliating surrender of King Injo.

After he surveyed the fiscal base of the province and ongoing taxation results, Kim Yuk was convinced the necessity of implementing Daedongbeop (대동법; 大同法) in his jurisdiction.

It was his firm belief based on the real world that Daedongbeop would stabilize the living of common people and ensure the fiscal soundness.

As a matter of fact, Daedongbeop was test-implemented at the suggestion of Hahn Baek-gyeom (한백겸; 韓百謙) in the name of Daegong Sumibeop (대공수미법; 貸貢收米法)[a] in Gyeonggi Province.

The policy proposal was endorsed by then Prime Minister Lee Won-ik (이원익; 李元翼) and came into force in September 1608 by setting up Seonhyecheong (선혜청; 宣惠廳)[3] at Hanyang.

Occasionally, they demanded in collusion regional products which were hardly available owing to flood, drought or harmful insects, or even refused the direct provision of farmers on account of defects or quality of goods.

[4][page needed] So Kim Yuk's countermeasures included the unitary taxation of 12 mal (말; 斗) per gyeol (결; 結).

[5] While he served as Governor of Chungcheong province, Kim Yuk realized that it was urgently necessary to replace the indigenous products contribution system (공납제; 貢納制) with Daedongbeop which called for proportionate sharing of rice produced at the farm land.

Unavoidably, Kim Yuk was departed from the mainstream bureaucrats represented by Kim Jip (김집; 金集) and Song Si-yeol (송시열; 宋時烈), and caused the separation of anti-Kim Sandang (산당, 山黨, meaning 'the Mountain Party') and pro-Kim Handang (한당, 漢黨, meaning 'the Han River Party').

However, the power elite groups were indulged in factional strife-based disputes on the Confucian courtesy issues over royal funeral services.

As the mainstream Neo-Confucianist Song Si-yeol took power, such pragmatic policy ideas as proposed by Yu Sŏngnyong and Kim Yuk were excluded in governing the nation.

When King Jeongjo died abruptly in 1800, the maternal relatives of royal family meddled in the policy-making and administration continuously, the Joseon dynasty came near to demise.