Yoon receives bipartisan condolences after father's death

Politics

Published: 16 Aug. 2023, 18:19 Updated: 16 Aug. 2023, 20:14

Yoon receives bipartisan condolences after father's death

President Yoon Suk Yeol stands in front of a memorial altar for his late father, Yoon Ki-jung, a professor emeritus of Yonsei University, at Severance Hospital in Seodaemun District, western Seoul, Tuesday. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

President Yoon Suk Yeol received an outpour of condolences from politicians, lawmakers and other leaders of society for a second day after the death of his father on Wednesday.

Economist Yoon Ki-jung, a professor emeritus of Yonsei University who taught applied statistics, died Tuesday at the age of 92.

A three-day family funeral service was set up at Severance Hospital in Seodaemun District, western Seoul, where Yoon received mourners since Tuesday afternoon.

The presidential office said that the small funeral will be limited to family members, close associates, students of the late professor, political and parliamentary leaders and diplomatic envoys, and that Yoon would not be accepting other visits or flowers.

Nonetheless, over the two days, Cabinet members, former and incumbent lawmakers along party lines and other political figures paid their condolences to the president.

On Tuesday, Yoon received Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon, chairman of the People Power Party (PPP), and Rep. Lee Jae-myung, chief of the opposing Democratic Party (DP), while Lee Jeong-mi, head of the minor progressive Justice Party, paid condolences the following day.

Former President Lee Myung-bak paid a condolence visit Tuesday evening, while former presidents Moon Jae-in and Park Geun-hye sent flowers to the memorial altar.

Former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo expressed their condolences to Yoon on the same day.

Former President Lee Myung-bak, left, shakes hands with President Yoon Suk Yeol after paying condolences for his late father, Yoon Ki-jung, a professor emeritus of Yonsei University, at Severance Hospital in Seodaemun District, western Seoul, Tuesday. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

On Wednesday, figures including veteran politician Kim Chong-in, who had served as general chairman of the PPP election campaign committee ahead of the presidential election in 2022 which put Yoon in office, former PPP Chairman Lee Jun-seok, former Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum and Supreme Court Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su paid their condolences.

Others included Lee Soon-ja, widow of late President Chun Doo Hwan, and their son Chun Jae-yong.

Prof. Yoon had been hospitalized at Seoul National University Hospital recently for illnesses related to old age, according to the presidential office.

The president stayed by his father's deathbed after attending a Liberation Day ceremony Tuesday morning.

This is the second time an incumbent president has lost a parent, following former President Moon whose mother died in 2019. It is the first time that a sitting president's father died.

North Korea has not sent any message regarding the death of President Yoon's father as of Wednesday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un conveyed a letter of condolence to Moon upon news of the death of his father in October 2019 through the Panmunjom channel at the inter-Korean border. This was after inter-Korean relations had somewhat cooled after the collapse of Kim's talks with then-U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2019.

Pyongyang has generally expressed condolences to news of the death of South Korean figures with direct relations to the North, with then-leader Kim Jong-il expressing condolences after the deaths of former President Roh Moo-hyun and former President Kim Dae-jung in 2009.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a briefing Tuesday likewise extended "the deepest condolences of the United States to President Yoon on the passing of his father," noting the late professor was "by all accounts a remarkable scholar and — among other things — a strong proponent of relations between [South Korea] and Japan."

The funeral comes ahead of President Yoon's departure for a trilateral summit with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts scheduled for Friday at Camp David in Maryland.

Mourners line up at the funeral hall at Severance Hospital in Seodaemun District, western Seoul, Wednesday, to pay condolences to President Yoon Suk Yeol’s late father, Yoon Ki-jung, a professor emeritus of Yonsei University. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]