Yuk Young-soo

Yuk Young-soo and Park Chung-hee had three children: daughters Park Geun-hye, the 11th president of South Korea, as well as Park Geun-ryoung and a son Park Ji-man.

Park Geun-hye then became the First Lady of South Korea, after returning urgently from her studies in France at the Joseph Fourier University. She held this position for five years, until her father's assassination in 1979. Yuk Young-soo remains in the eyes of the South Korean people as the most appreciated First Lady, returning a calm image of wise and temperate woman. On her 42nd death anniversary, a concert was organized on memory of her in Seoul.

At 10:23 a.m., 15 August 1974, South Korean Independence Day, Yuk was shot and killed by Mun Se-gwang, a Zainichi Korean and North Korean sympathizer, during an attempt by Mun to assassinate President Park Chung-hee.

Yuk was buried in a state funeral on 19 August 1974. Yuk Young-soo is buried next to her husband at the Seoul National Cemetery. Park composed the following poem the day after Yuk's state funeral.

She was also close to the people, and visited patients suffering from leprosy. She helped to start several self-support projects, and visited the families of South Korean soldiers deployed to Vietnam, to comfort and console them. In 1973, she undertook projects which saw the development of vocational training institutes for poor and disadvantaged youth. Because of the efforts of Yuk Young-soo, a vigorous social services are professional because the social welfare-oriented vocational training that have had to know glim of poverty.

Yuk Young-soo always made a simple impression on people regarding Hanbok and elegance, and was a sincere wife to her husband at home. She also took great interest in children and health, and often visited orphanages and nurseries several times to develop policies for children's health. During her husband's tenure, she mainly took care of receiving guests and dealing with complaints, although she wanted to do her part as “a revolutionary's wife”. She was also involved with the Red Cross and with children with autism. In 1970, the construction of Children's Grand Park started and opened the following year.

She also did not hesitate to try to influence her husband, especially in 1963, when, to resolve tensions with the American ambassador Samuel D. Berger, she invited him to the Blue House. Park Chung-hee then joked about it, going so far as to consider her "the first opposition party". In 1969, she created a private foundation with the aim of improving the well-being of South Korean children. In 1974, a mother was invited to the Blue House revealed that her child was suffering from facial paralysis. Yuk Young-soo found the best acupuncture center and hospitalized him.

Yuk was born in Okcheon County, North Chungcheong Province, Korea in 1925, the second of three daughters of a prosperous self-made landlord. She graduated from Baehwa High School for Girls (presently known as Paihwa Girls' High School). In August 1950 she met Park Chung-hee through a relative who was serving under Park. On 12 December 1950 she married Park Chung-hee. While her mother supported her choice of husband, Yuk's father was against the match, so she married without his blessing.

Yuk Young-soo (Korean pronunciation: [juɡjʌŋsʰu]; 29 November 1925 – 15 August 1974) was the wife of the 3rd South Korean president Park Chung-hee and the mother of the 11th South Korean president Park Geun-hye. She was killed in 1974 during an attempted assassination of her husband, Park Chung-hee.