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Hanabusa immediately applied for audience with the King, but the Ministers would not grant it, on the pretext that the 17th and the 18th were days of important religious ceremony in the Court. The Japanese Minister consented to wait, adding, however, that on his mission hung the question of peace or war between Japan and Corea, that the unwillingness on the part of Corea to receive the mission in a proper way would be interpreted in the sense of her not wishing for peace, and that, should the audience be granted or not, he would present himself before the King on the 19th. On the 19th the King sent a messenger to Hanabusa expressing his sorrow for not being able to receive him on account of illness, and appointing the noon of the 20th as the time of audience. In the meanwhile Major-General Takashima and Rear-Admiral Nire arrived with reinforcements.

The audience took place at the appointed time. After proper exchange of courtesies, Hanabusa presented to the King the ultimatum containing the items of the demand for satisfaction, and added verbally that, in the extreme moment when the diplomatic relations between the two nations were about to break off, the Government of Japan made this demand solely out of their desire to preserve friendly relations, that on the answer of the Government of Corea depended the continuity or rupture of peace between the two nations, and that he was to wait for the said answer for three days—i.e., till the noon of the 23rd. He also asked the King to appoint a responsible Minister for the negotiation, and the King named the Presiding Minister, Ko-jun-boku, as the Corean plenipotentiary.

After the audience, the arch-author of the coup d’état, Tai-in-kun, received the mission in another portion of the palace, treated Hanabusa and his suite with every mark of cordiality and good-humour, and acted as if he had nothing to do with the late event. He was even such a consummate diplomat that, in serving tea to the mission, he purposely made use of select Japanese porcelain and trays, and gave to each person with his own hands Corean fans made of stork feathers.

As the Corean Government showed symptoms of procrastination, Hanabusa urged once more that the ultimatum was really an ultimatum, the term of three days for the answer being absolutely unalterable. Nevertheless, the Presiding Minister notified on the 22nd that he had to travel in the interior on Government service, so that the negotiations could not be opened for several days more. This decidedly showed that the Corean Government did not really intend to end the matter by direct negotiation. Hanabusa now announced his departure the next day, and sending a note to Ko-jun-boku,