Yi Sun-sin was a great leader of Joseon who saved his country on the peril of break down during the Imjin War. In 1592, while the country was in dire crisis with the invasion of Japan, Yi Sun-sin made over 20 times of battles with the Japanese forces and he won all the battles to protect the country and people. He created the first armored vessel, the turtle ship, in the world, and had a great victory in the Battle of Hansando with the battle of guns by using the strategy of the Hakik-jin. In particular, Myeongryang Battle where Yi Sun-sin had 13 ships to defeat the Japanese naval force of some 130 ships and it is referred to as the miracle of the world naval battle history. In the final Noryang Battle, he left the famous patriotic words that “the fight is still on that do not tell them that I died.” Yi Sun-sin has been one of the most respected person for Koreans after all these 400 years of time.

Yi Sun-sin recorded the unprecedented victories that could not been found anywhere in the world history. Genghis Khan was defeated in two wars in 20 times of war that he was involved in, Napoleon lost four wars out of 23 wars, the Great Emperor Frederick was defeated in three wars from 12 wars, and Hanibal lost one war in five wars. However, Yi Sun-sin fought 23 times and victorious in all 23 times. He had 23 small and large battles in seven years with the absolute disadvantageous number of soldiers and number of ships, Yi Sun-sin led all the battles victory without single defeat, and all he lost was two c1s from the attack of the Japanese forces.

The followings are the assessment of world historians on Yi Sun-sin.

When Admiral Yi SUn-sin was appointed as Jeollajwasusa one year prior to the Imjin War breaking out, a friend of him had the following dream.

How could Admiral Yi Sun-sin make his friend to have such an inspiration to dream like that? The dream could be thought of as making up the story to glorify the heroic records of Admiral Yi Sun-sin. However, on the other side of this dream story, it would be reasonable to reflect the expectation on Admiral Yi Sun-sin due to the unstable domestic and overseas political situation.

Consequently, Admiral Yi Sun-sin rescued the country in dire peril during the seven years of war, Imjin War, the largest war in East Asia of the 16th century. No one would deny the virtuous deed of Admiral Yi Sun-sin who saved the falling Joseon Dynasty and people of despair with the invasion of Japanese invaders.