Park Geun-hye Releases Father’s 1974 Letter Amid Film Dispute
A lawmaker close to former President Park Geun-hye has disclosed a private letter written by Park Chung-hee after first lady Yuk Young-soo’s death, escalating a dispute over the historical film The Assassin(s).
A handwritten letter from former President Park Chung-hee to his daughter, former President Park Geun-hye, has been made public as political and cultural tensions intensify around the historical film The Assassin(s).
People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Young-ha disclosed a copy of the letter at a National Assembly press conference on Friday. The document had been kept by Park Geun-hye and was written on Aug. 17, 1974, two days after first lady Yuk Young-soo was fatally shot during a Liberation Day ceremony.
Park Geun-hye was studying in France when her mother died. She returned to South Korea through Tokyo and received the letter from her younger sister, Park Geun-ryeong, while traveling home.
In the letter, Park Chung-hee told his daughter that the bullet intended for him had instead struck her mother. He wrote that he repeatedly wished he had been shot and that Yuk had survived. He also described feeling as though the sky had collapsed, while saying he had resolved to find the courage to bear responsibility for both his children and the country.
The former president asked his daughter to remain strong and said she would now have to take her mother’s place. He added that he would make whatever sacrifices were necessary to become a good father, even if he could not do a fraction of what Yuk had done.
The disclosure has become part of a widening argument over how The Assassin(s) portrays the 1974 killing and the boundary between artistic license and the historical record. Conservative critics have accused the production of distorting history and harming Park Chung-hee’s reputation.
Yoo demanded that the film be withdrawn from theaters and that its producers apologize. He said the filmmakers should clearly distinguish material grounded in records from fictional elements rather than rely on freedom of creation and expression as a defense. He also said legal action was under consideration and called for an apology to the bereaved family and others who felt harmed.
The dispute places a private family document at the center of a public debate over historical filmmaking. It also sharpens scrutiny of how works based on traumatic political events identify dramatized scenes and address competing interpretations of the past.