Former dictator’s house to be opened to the public for the first time

Posted on : 2015-01-21 16:33 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
In March, Seoulites will be able to visit the house where Park Chung-hee plotted his 1961 military coup
 1961 military coup. Using surviving photographs
1961 military coup. Using surviving photographs

This March, the house in Seoul’s Sindang neighborhood where former President Park Chung-hee plotted his May 16, 1961 military coup will be opened to the public.

The house - located at 62-43 Sindang Neighborhood in central Seoul - is where Park lived from May 1958, when he was a brigadier in the army, until 1961, when he seized power in the coup.

Only seven months after moving there, his son Park Ji-man was born and he was promoted to major general. Park is said to have told his family that the house was “a good place to live.”

In Oct. 1962, after being appointed to lead the supreme council, Park and his family relocated to the official residence in the Jangchung neighborhood of Seoul. Following Park’s death in 1979, his surviving family members, including his daughter and current president Park Geun-hye, returned to the house in the Sindang neighborhood.

The building, which is owned by a foundation established in memory of Park’s wife Yuk Young-soo, was registered as Cultural Heritage site no. 412 in 2008.

From the end of 2010 until now, Seoul Metropolitan Government has spent a total of 490 million won (US$450,530) in restoring the house as a cultural heritage site. Last year, the city received management rights for the property from the foundation, on the condition that it be opened the building to the public.

 the house has been restored to its appearance from 1958-61. (provided by Seoul Metropolitan Government)
the house has been restored to its appearance from 1958-61. (provided by Seoul Metropolitan Government)

The house will be opened four times a day to tours of 60 people at a time. Reservations are required because the house is quite small, 128m2 in size, occupying a plot of land that is 341m2.

“Drawing upon surviving photographs, we will be creating replicas of the furniture, including the chairs that Yuk Young-soo used to entertain guests,” said Kim Su-jeong, chief of cultural heritage research for Seoul.

The house was one of the so-called “culture houses” that were built by the Joseon City Management Company, a subsidiary of the Oriental Development Company, in the 1930s and 40s, during the Japanese colonial occupation of Korea. These houses, constructed in the Jangchung and Sindang neighborhoods of Seoul, were provided to Japanese residents of Seoul.

The houses were marked by a distinctive blend of Japanese and Western styles. This house is the only one that remains standing today.

 

By Eum Sung-won, staff reporter

 

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