Yi Seok - The Lost Years

The Lost Years

Returning to the Republic of Korea, the Imperial family was again given accommodation at palaces in Seoul, but with the coup following the assassination of President Park Chung Hee in 1979, the Imperial family was ordered out of the palace at gunpoint; and what properties and assets they had were finally totally confiscated. Yi Seok then travelled to the United States where he took again a series of jobs in the recessionary 1980s to provide for his family and his relatives whilst attempting protracted legal and moral battles to retrieve family properties seized illegally, and now irretrievable under post-war Korean law. In the Los Angeles riots of 1992, many of his personal possessions, archives, and historical photographs were lost in the fires.

With the changed political climate in the early 1990s, Seok was able to return to the Republic of Korea, and once again attempt to live in old family properties, and battle for his legal rights as a private citizen. After a series of difficult times, he had a series of spiritual revelations, retired to a monastery, and regained a new public life at the beginning of the 21st century, with a series of constant travels doing educational work, promoting both Korean Imperial tourism and the restoration of historical buildings, and a schedule that involves over 100 speaking engagements or public appearances each year. Currently he lives in Jeonju, South Korea.

The hardships and resilience that is typical of Korean life from WW2 to the post Vietnam era proved interesting and Yi Seok's life was made into a dramatic semi-fictional TV programme on the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS).