[Special series Part 3 - Bitterness and Endurance] Park Geun-hye’s past and future

Posted on : 2012-07-12 16:08 KST Modified on : 2012-07-12 16:08 KST
 July 11. (by Kang Chang-kwang
July 11. (by Kang Chang-kwang

Theme 3: Her father’s advocate

Park Geun-hye is often called the incarnation of endurance. In February 2007, Park, her entourage and reporters visited the U.S. They arrived at the airport and passed through the immigration checkpoint. When Park went through a metal detector at security, the alarm rang. She passed through several times without any of her belongings but the alarm didn’t stop. Security guards took her to a separate room to search her.

“Her entourage was complaining that the security measures were too much. Park is an influential figure in Korean politics but they treated her with disregard. It turned out that a hairpin caused the alarm. But Park finished all the procedures without any complaint. She said instead, ‘If that’s a rule, I have to follow it,’” a source from Park’s camp explained.

In every election, Park has written a new success story. She toured the country, relying on brief naps and meals while on the go. Supreme councilor Lee Hye-hoon from the New Frontier Party said, “Even if there was only one staff with Park, she never loosened herself but straightened her pose all the time.”

If her hand was aching after shaking countless hands, she bandaged it or used her left hand. Her bandaged hand was her trademark for every election season. Since failing to earn the Grand National Party’s presidential nomination in 2007, Park has been head of an opposition camp within the ruling party.

After her father Park Chung-hee was assassinated in 1979, Park experienced intense physiological shock. All of a sudden, she got unidentified spots on her entire body. She went to see a doctor, but no one could find the cause.

“I guess her great sense of loss was expressed through an extraordinary physical reaction,” said one of her close associates. “When I hear people saying Park never underwent hardship in her life, I can help but laugh because it’s so not true.”

Park wrote in her diary on June 10, 1981, “Pain is a human attribute. It might be proof of being alive.” The spots on her body are now gone, but the bitterness has not yet left her mind.

Park didn’t get along with her sisters. Her brother was criticized for having a drug problem. She wrote in her diary, “The agony is the entrance for seeking the truth.”

Her diary on May 21 1992, reads, “If I had to live that kind of life again, I would choose death instead. I have lived the past years, only because I was born, and I had a sense of duty. So far, I have not much of feeling that I‘m so satisfied with my life. Why was I born? It would have been much better if I had not been born.”

Translated by Kim Ji-seung, Hankyoreh English intern

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

 

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