Choson Royal Scions Crown New Korean Monarch
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Some descendants of the country's old royal family crowned a new monarch yesterday in a ceremony, although it had no state backing.
A king ruled Korea before it was deprived of its diplomatic sovereignty in 1905 and made into a Japanese colony in 1910. The imperial family was not re-instituted in 1945 when Korea was liberated from Japan's colonial rule, and the country has since remained a parliamentary democracy without a monarch.
The privately-run Imperial Family Association of ``Taehanjeguk’’ (Empire of Korea), organized in June by about a dozen descendants of the last king, held an hour-long ceremony in a hotel in downtown Seoul to have Yi Hae-won, 88, restored as the queen of South Korea.
Yi is the daughter of Prince Uichin, fifth son of King Kojong, the second last king of the Chosun Kingdom.
``We unanimously agreed that Yi deserves to be the queen as she is the eldest authentic survivor of the imperial family,’’ Yi Cho-nam, president of the association, said.
The queen will succeed as leader of the traditional Choson society as well as have authority to select her successor, he added.
``We hope to unite the royal descendants spread across the country and speak as one voice through Queen Yi.’’
The crowning ceremony is not sponsored or supported by the South Korean government in any way, Yi said.
In a nationwide poll conducted last month by a local pollster RealMeter, 54.4 percent of 460 South Koreans said they would like to see the royal house brought back to wield at least symbolic power.
rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr.
09-29-2006 22:07
*edit*
The Western Confucian posts this pic and his comments.
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