Afraid of the Japanese imperialists getting evermore pronounced in the moves to put Korea under their control, Empress Myongsong, who held the reins of the then Korean feudal government, sought to contain Japan with the help of Czarist Russia.

So, the Japanese imperialists worked out a plan for killing the empress and appointed Miura, army lieutenant general, as the minister to Seoul for its materialization.

On the secret orders of the Japanese government, Miura organized a murderous group involving the force of guards and policemen, gangsters and hooligans.

On October 8, 1895, hundreds of murderers attacked the royal palace under his command and killed court ladies at random. After recognizing the identity of the empress among dead ladies, those murderers put her on a woodpile, set fire on it and threw her left remains in a pool to conceal the crime.

A Japanese, directly involved in this case, noted in his memoirs that they sprayed oil on the bloodstained corpse and set fire on it and then the corpse was instantly enveloped in flames, giving out pungent smell.