Korea to hold 42nd memorial ceremony for former first lady

Published : Aug 12, 2016 - 11:26 Updated : Aug 12, 2016 - 13:52

South Korea will hold the 42nd memorial ceremony next week for Yook Young-su, wife of the late President Park Chung-hee and mother of incumbent President Park Geun-hye, the defense ministry said Friday.

The memorial service will be held at the graves of the president's parents in the Seoul National Cemetery located in southern Seoul at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement.

Some 3,000 people, including family members and politicians, are expected to attend the ceremony this year. But President Park will not be present at the event, a spokeswoman at the state-run cemetery said by phone.

Yook, born in 1925 in Okcheon, 174 kilometers south of Seoul, married then Lt. Col. Park Chung-hee in 1950. Yook and Park are survived by President Park, her younger sister Geun-ryong and younger brother Ji-man.

This undated photo shows a portrait of the late first lady Yook Young-su, mother of incumbent President Park Geun-hye. (Yonhap)

She is widely viewed as South Korea's most respected first lady due to her leading role in efforts to improve the life of underprivileged people in the 1960s and 1970s.

On Aug. 15, 1974, Yook was killed by an assassin’s bullet fired by Moon Se-kwang, a 23-year-old Korean-Japanese North Korean agent, who had tried to target then-President Park Chung-hee at a ceremony to mark the anniversary of Korea's independence from Japanese colonial rule in Seoul. (Yonhap)