It was published by Ernest Bethell, a British citizen who sharply criticized the Empire of Japan's rapid encroachment on Korean sovereignty.

It was published until the 1945 liberation of Korea, when it was seized by the United States occupying force and reorganized into today's Seoul Shinmun.

[5] The pair,[5] along with Korean independence activist Yang Gi-tak, published the first trial issue of the Korea Times, completely in English, on June 29, 1904.

[5] The contemporary Canadian journalist Frederick Arthur MacKenzie wrote:The Japanese were making his life as uncomfortable as they possibly could, and were doing everything to obstruct his work.

His mail was constantly tampered with; his servants were threatened or arrested on various excuses, and his household was subjected to the closest espionage.

On 10 February 1906, Gojong gave Bethell a handwritten note, putting him in charge of communications and the press of the empire and subsidizing his expenses.

[1] That May, they offered to house Ahn Chang Ho's New People's Association, sheltering it under Bethell's immunity from Japanese persecution.

[1] By 27 May 1908, circulation of the paper reached 13,256 copies (8,143 in mixed script, 4,650 in Hangul, and 463 in English),[1] more than all other newspapers in Korea combined.

[5] Bethell eventually won his second trial at the British Supreme Court for China in December 1908 and defiantly immediately returned to continue reporting.

[5] He secretly sold the newspaper to former employee Yi Changhun (이장훈; 李章薰) for 40,000 won in gold[2] and left the country.