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Newly appointed to lead the People Power Party’s innovation committee, John Linton leaves the party’s headquarters in Yeouido on Oct. 23 after meeting with Lee Man-hui, the party’s secretary general, to discuss the direction of the innovation committee. (Kang Chang-kwang/The Hankyoreh)

Yonsei University College of Medicine professor John Linton, who was appointed as the chairperson of the People Power Party’s innovation committee on Monday, is a figure widely known by his nickname, the “blue-eyed Korean.” He was recognized as South Korea’s first special naturalized citizen for his family’s contributions to education and medicine in South Korea spanning four generations.

Born in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, in 1959, Linton spent his youth in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, and has deep roots in Honam, so much so that he jokingly calls himself a “bumpkin from Jeolla.” Linton’s maternal great-grandfather Eugene Bell was a US missionary who came to Korea in 1895 and carried out medical and missionary activities mainly in the Honam area. His grandfather, William Linton, was awarded an Order of Merit for National Foundation (National Medal) in 2010 for raising awareness of the March 1 Movement in the international community. His father, Hugh Linton, is a Korean War veteran who served as a captain of the US Navy.

Linton himself, known widely in Korea by his Korean name Ihn Yo-han, helped bring light to the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement in 1980 by providing English interpretation for the citizen militia. He also founded the Eugene Bell Foundation in 1995, providing medical support to North Korea through tuberculosis eradication projects and ambulance donations and more than 20 visits to North Korea. In 2012, his special naturalization was approved — a first in South Korea’s history — for his contributions to developing a Korean-style ambulance, and he obtained South Korean citizenship that March.

A graduate of Yonsei University’s College of Medicine, Linton currently heads the International Health Care Center of Severance Hospital.

Although Linton has pinpointed former President Kim Dae-jung as the historical figure he respects the most, his connections with political circles have skewed more towards the conservative side.

In 2012, he worked for Park Geun-hye’s presidential campaign as vice chairperson of the “100% Korea Unity Committee,” and on Park’s presidential transition committee as vice chairperson of the Presidential Committee for National Cohesion.

His ties to Yoon are also notable. Linton attended Yoon’s inauguration as one of the “20 representatives of the people,” and served as chairperson of the policy advisory committee for the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs in 2022, helping to elevate the ministry.

In June, he accompanied Yoon to a special exhibition on the 70th anniversary of the South Korea-US alliance at the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History in the Jongno District of Seoul. He is also known to be close to Kim Han-gil, the chairman of the National Unity Committee, in whom Yoon has recently publicly expressed high confidence.

Linton has a history of making political remarks that skew markedly conservative. In October 2022, at the 43rd anniversary memorial service for Park Chung-hee, Linton said, “President Lincoln is considered the greatest leader in America. For the Korean people, Park is even more illustrious than Lincoln.”

In August 2022, he appeared on conservative political commentator Ko Sung-kook’s YouTube channel and argued that Gen. Paik Sun-yup, a figure controversial for admitted collaboration with the Japanese who colonized Korea, was a “Korean hero,” saying, “If you look at the logic used for the argument that Paik was a pro-Japanese collaborator, you can also say that the US, as a country, started on the wrong foot, as George Washington had served as a British soldier.”

Linton also sympathized with the claim that participants in the May 1980 massacre had not earned the right to be called people of national merit. “There are many questions surrounding the people of merit of the May 1980 massacre. Shouldn’t we look into that?” Linton said while appearing in a YouTube video on Ko’s channel. “Since the incident itself is subject to questioning, we should take a look at who really should be considered as people of national merit, and who didn’t contribute at all.”

In a 2009 Maeil Business article, he argued for the introduction of a private health insurance system, saying that the national health insurance scheme “shows strong socialist proclivities,” and was criticized by healthcare organizations as making “dangerous” claims that come close to arguing for the dismantlement of health insurance.

By Shin Min-jung, staff reporter; Seo Young-ji, staff reporter

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