Pianist Paik Kun-woo's management agency denies accusation of neglect of wife Yoon Jeong-hee

Pianist Paik Kun-woo’s agency has denied the accusation that Paik and his daughter have been negligent in the care of Paik’s wife actress Yoon Jeong-hee, who suffers from Alzheimer‘s disease.

A petition accusing Paik and his daughter of neglect was uploaded Friday, some three months after Yoon’s siblings lost a lawsuit in the French courts challenging the designation of Paik and the couple’s daughter as Yoon‘s legal guardians.

On Sunday, Paik’s agency in Korea, Vincero, released an official statement calling the petition a “false accusation without grounds.”

“Though Paik and Yoon had always traveled together (for Paik‘s performances), it became impossible for Yoon, with her health condition, to accompany Paik on trips that can sometimes take very long,” Vincero said.

In 2019, Paik and the daughter revealed in an interview with a local newspaper that Yoon had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for the past decade.

“Rather than staying at a nursing home far away from family, Yoon is staying in an apartment next to her daughter, where she can be close to her family, cared for by a caretaker assigned by the court and Paik’s family,” the statement by Vincero read.

Limited phone calls and visits mentioned in the petition were measures ordered by the court for Yoon’s welfare, Vincero said.

The Blue House petition claimed Yoon was living alone in an apartment near Paris as Yoon and Paik have separated and that Paik has failed to provide proper care for Yoon. It also said that their daughter is too busy to look after Yoon.

The petition asks the government to help bring Yoon back to Korea.

Yoon, whose legal name is Son Mi-ja, is one of the most influential actresses in the 1960s and the 1970s. She tied the knot with Paris-based pianist Paik in 1976, and have a daughter who is a violinist in Paris.

Yoon‘s most recent film “Poetry” (2010) was directed by celebrated Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong.

By Im Eun-byel (silverstar@heraldcorp.com)