Sŏ Hŭi

[3] Like his father, Sŏ Hŭi became a jaesang [ko], the collective term referring to officials with a high rank in ancient Korea.

After Sŏ Hŭi passed gwageo, the state examination, with a high grade, in March 960, the 11th year of King Gwangjong's reign, he served for the government as the Gwangpyeongwon eorang (廣評員外郎) and Naeui sirang (內議侍郎) posts.

[citation needed] However, he is most remembered in his diplomatic career for his direct negotiations with General Xiao Sunning of the Liao dynasty, which prevented a fullscale invasion by a host of Khitan troops:[3] According to the story, after Xiao captured Pongsan county in 993 and forced Goryeo's forces to retreat behind the Taedong River, he wrote to demand Goryeo's surrender: "[O]ur great country is about to unify land on all four directions" and to justify the expedition by charging: "your country does not take care of the people's needs, we solemnly execute heaven's punishment on its behalf".

King Seongjong of Goryeo initially accepted Liao's demands, planning on the advice of his negotiators to give up the land north of Pyongyang to Xiao and drawing the Liao-Goryeo border in a straight line between Hwangju and P'aryŏng.

[5] Sŏ Hŭi, however, was convinced that the Liao were acting from a position of "fear of us" and begged the king to "return to the capital and let us, your officers, wage one more battle".

Sŏ rhetorically referred to the land that King Gwangjong had conquered from the Jurchens and which the Khitans (Liao) now held as "former Koguryŏ territory".

[5] Later, Sŏ Hŭi fortified the newly expanded territory, which gave Goryeo a decisive victory in the second and third conflicts after his death.