THE TREATY PROVIDED for the opening of Chemulpo, Busan, Wŏnsan, Seoul and Yanghwajin and for the selection of sites for, and the laying out of, foreign settlement areas in the first three places by the Korean authorities in conjunction with the foreign representatives in Korea. A General Foreign Settlement area of some 160 acres was set out at Chemulpo adjoining the pre-existing Chinese and Japanese settlements. Each settlement area was to be run by its own municipal council.

There were separate Japanese and Chinese settlements in Busan, and Japanese settlements at other open ports; but only Chemulpo had an international settlement area. The absence of international settlement areas elsewhere was due to a simple lack of demand. Carles had described Busan back in 1883 as a ‘purely Japanese town, in which no Corean resided’ although a few Chinese had begun arriving. The representatives of Britain, the US, France and Russia sent the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a joint note in 1889 as regards setting aside land at Busan for a foreign settlement but no such settlement came into existence and the question was not raised again or in respect of Wŏnsan or any of the other ports that were opened later. There was no separately designated settlement area for foreigners in Seoul – and no municipal council to regulate their affairs there. In this regard, Seoul was like Hakodate, Niigata and Tokyo.

Pyongyang was designated as an additional trading mart in 1898. Nampo and Mokpo were opened to foreign trade in 1897 followed by Gunsan, Masan and Songchin in 1899. In 1903, Jordan requested the opening of a port on the Yalu river. He suggested that the success of the ports opened in 1897 would justify it, but the Korean authorities responded that no decision had been made regarding the opening of Yong Am Po. In making his request, Jordan was acting in support of Japanese interests (rather than pursuing separate British interests) to have another port opened there. In September 1903, the Korean authorities proposed closing Pyongyang as a port as, being too close to Nampo, it was not much used and opening Uiju in its place.