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Lifelong feminism leader dies at 81

Posted May. 18, 2013 04:23,   

한국어

Park Young-sook, former acting chairwoman of the Peace and Democracy Party, who is dubbed the “Godmother” of Korea’s feminine movement, died Friday morning. She was 81.

Born in Pyongyang in 1932, she graduated from Chonnam Girls’ High School, and the English department of Ewha Womans University. In the 1960s, she started devoting her life to feminine movement. While serving as general affairs manager of YWCA and general secretary of the Korean National Council of Women, Park became a close acquaintance of Lee Hee-ho, former President Kim Dae-jung’s wife who was also her senior alumnus of Ewha. In 1986, as the council’s chair, she spearheaded a campaign to urge the authority to investigate a sexual torture case of a female activist that occurred at Bucheon Police Station and to punish those responsible.

In the wake of the “Kim Dae-jung sedition and conspiracy incident” in 1980, Park led a campaign to save former President Kim who was given death sentence. In 1988, she became the first woman in Korea to receive No 1 proportional representation candidate (the Peace and Democracy Party) at the 13th general elections, and became a member of parliament. She later served as vice chair, acting chair, and supreme council member of the party. During the Kim Dae-jung administration, she served as chairwoman of the Korea Foundation for Women and chair of the presidential sustainable development committee. She read funeral oration at former President Kim’s state funeral in 2009.

While serving as the chairwoman of the Korea Foundation for Women in 1999, she started leading a campaign to spread donation culture. She spearheaded the “100 People Donation Relay” every year and established the “Asia Women Bridge Dureon Dureon,” a nonprofit organization supporting economic independence of impoverished women. As chairwoman of the scholarship foundation “Sallimi,” she actively engaged in philanthropic activities. As she had keen interest in environment, she also served as a co-head of the Korea Committee of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, chief of women’s environment coalition "Ecofem," and chairwoman of the Korea environment and social policy institute.

Park’s funeral parlor is at Special Room No. 1 (02-2227-7550) at Yonsei University Severance Hospital in Seoul’s Shinchon district. Her funeral will take place at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, and burial site is Moran Park in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province.