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| Pianist Paik Kun-woo speaks during a press conference held to refute allegations that he is mistreating his wife, actress Yun Jung-hee, at White Hall in Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap |
Paik takes legal action, denying allegations
By Park Ji-won
Pianist Paik Kun-woo denied allegations that he and his daughter abandoned his wife, actress Yun Jung-hee, who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and that his daughter has failed to fulfill her duty as a guardian, claiming they are false accusations.
He has taken legal action against his in-laws who made the allegations.
"Yun forgets everything within a few minutes … It is not good for an Alzheimer's patient to change the living environment and it's best to live with family … You don't have to worry about (Yun's treatment). She is surrounded by a lot of good people next to her and they are always taking care of her with affection," he said during a news conference on Thursday. "Please leave us alone so that we can go back to normal."
He went on to say that in addition to Paik's daughter, who visits Yun every day while living next to her, a medical aide visits Yun two to three times a week and a nurse also visits her every couple months. He added there are caregivers who visit Yun in the morning, noon and afternoon, and a person living with Yun takes care of her during the night.
"I have been silent about those accusations because it is not easy to deliver truth through words … But Yun's siblings have been making false accusations through various ways, but I did not take any concrete actions to protect the good image of Yun as an actress in the people's hearts … But my daughter, a guardian, is the one who suffers the most as she continues to take care of her sick mother. Caring needs a lot of people and extreme patience mentally and physically. I won't allow any more false accusations against my daughter."
He broke his silence for the first time in response to a series of allegations against him and his daughter over the last few years. Since he revealed in 2019 that she had been suffering from the disease for about 10 years, a petition written by Yun's siblings was submitted to the presidential office in February this year, claiming that Yun is not receiving proper medical treatment given the fact that Paik was not spending enough time with her when they were staying in Seoul in 2019, and he was not letting her siblings meet her as much as possible after returning to France where Paik, Yun and his daughter live.
Titled "Disappeared actress, two sides of guardianship," the Sept. 7 episode of "PD Note," MBC's flagship investigative journalism program, also supported the claim by interviewing the siblings and viewing the surroundings of Yun, while claiming that Paik's daughter, in particular, was abusing her position as a guardian and limiting visits by Yun's siblings. In the show, the siblings claimed that Yun's assets should be used for her treatment by designating a third person as a guardian.
Meanwhile, in November 2020, Yun's siblings lost a lawsuit in the French courts challenging the designation as legal guardianship of Paik's daughter and the Association Sociale et Tutelaire (A.S.T.), a French organization that shares joint guardianship over Yun as ordered by the French court. The siblings took the case to the Korean court and proceedings are currently underway.
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| Pianist Paik Kun-woo speaks during a press conference held to refute allegations that he is mistreating his wife, actress Yun Jung-hee, at White Hall in Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap |
Paik and Jung Seong-bok, his lawyer who attended the press conference, refuted the claims one by one, and revealed they have filed for arbitration with the Press Arbitration Commission against the show over 44 scenes, while seeking a correction and 1.1 billion won ($939,120) in damages for Paik and his daughter.
They also revealed that Paik accused Son Mi-ae of embezzlement, Wednesday. They said the person, who was in charge of Paik's income and bank account in Korea, lied about his income and used about 2.1 billion won ($1.8 million) without Paik's consent from 2002 to 2019.
When asked why Paik was not showing Yun's pictures for the sake of the confirmation of her situation, Paik added that A.S.T. is not letting pictures of Yun be unveiled to the public.
"Yun's siblings are making her life hard by not accepting her status and not knowing enough about the disease. You may understand why they are making false accusations over the last few years if you take a close look.
Yun, one of Korea's most famous actresses in the 1960s, has starred in more than 300 films. The 2010 film "Poetry" won best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010. Paik and Yun were married in 1976.
