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Yul-Gok was also deeply involved in government and public affairs. He passed the state examinations at the very young age of 24 and was ultimately appointed to several ministerial positions including that of Minister of Defense. He did more for establishing a mechanism to obtain the opinion of the common people, a national consensus, than any man in Korean history. Popular opinion of the masses, he felt, must arise spontaneously from the total population. He knew that the survival and vitality of a kingdom depended directly upon whether public opinion was obtained from all sections of the population. Yul-Gok felt that public resentment could be directly attributed to misrule. Therefore, rulers should pay closer heed to the voices of their subjects. He was convinced that when impoverished people are deprived of their humanity, morality crumbles, and penal systems are rendered ineffective. Because of his beliefs and his fear for the survival of the kingdom, Yul-Gok initiated many attempts at government reform. In one such effort, he sought to establish local government structures that were based on an education according to the philosophy of Chu-Hsi. He drew up set of village articles (Hyang-Yak) designed to instruct the villagers of Hae-ju in Confucian ethics. This government, however, was run by the elite class (Yang-Ban) and ultimately failed due to corruption.

Yul-Gok was also the first to propose the Tendong (Great Equity) System for solving the financial crisis of the Korean government. Under the Tendong System, taxes would be levied on land rather than on households and government would be required to purchase local products with tax dollars.

In addition to his active involvement, Yul-Gok was also inadvertently pulled into a serious political squabble by virtue of his philosophy. In 1575, the Korean government became mired in a political stalemate that ultimately contributed to its inability to repulse the invasion by Japan some ten years later. Two distinct factions, polarized within the Korean government, were constantly at each other's throats. These factions originally arose as a result of a personal quarrel between two men, Sim Ui-Gyom and Kim Hyo-Won. Ultimately, every official in the government had to align himself with one side or the other or risk attack by both. Since Kim's residence was in the Eastern quarter of Seoul and Sim's was in the western quarter, these two factions became known as the Easterners and the Westerners, respectively. This feuding continued long after Kim and Sim had disappeared from public life, and often took the guise of schemes designed to have members of the rival faction exiled, removed from office, or executed on false charges. These two factions were not only at odds politically but soon became philosophically opposed, with the easterners following the teachings of Yi-Hwang and the western faction following the teachings of Yul-Gok. These philosophical differences tended to drive the two factions further apart, increased the conflicts, and made the functioning of government virtually impossible.    

In 1583, a year before his death, Yul-Gok proposed that the government train and equip a 100,000-man Army Reserve Corps. This suggestion, like others he recommended, was undermined by minor officials who were caught up with the east-west political conflict within the government. It was unfortunate that this suggestion concerning national security was never allowed to be implemented. Nine years later, the Korean military forces and government officials failed in their resistance against the invasion by the Japanese army of Hideyoshi, resulting in the occupation of Korea.

Although never really permitted to see his theories and systems applied due to the political environment of the time, Yul-Gok nonetheless was an extraordinary philosopher. Long after his death in 1584, Yul-Gok has continued to have a profound effect Upon Korea and the world as a result of his lifelong dedication to Confucianism and theory of government.

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