Yi Seok

Yi Seok (Korean: 이석; born 3 August 1941) is a South Korean entrepreneur. He is a member of the House of Yi, the royal house of Joseon and Korean Empire. He is the 10th son of Prince Yi Kang, the fifth son of Emperor Gojong, and one of his concubines, Lady Hong Chŏng-sun.

Yi has been described as "one of two pretenders to the Korean throne and the only one living in Korea". Yi promotes the creation of a constitutional monarchy alongside the existing presidential system. In August 2006, Yi founded the Imperial Cultural Foundation of Korea (황실문화재단) to support this proposal.

In his early life, he gained fame as a singer and he released a 1967 album Pigeon House. Since 2004, he has been employed by the city of Jeonju to promote tourism. He also serves as a professor of history at Jeonju University. Yi's guesthouse in the Jeonju Hanok Village has been visited by Presidents Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in.

Yi was born Yi Hae-seok (이해석; 李海錫) on 30 August 1941. He was born in Sadong Palace [ko], Keijō, Korea, Empire of Japan. His father, Prince Yi Kang, was 62 and his mother, former telephone operator Lady Hong Chŏng-sun, was 19.^{[citation needed]} He was born the fifth son. Of his childhood in occupied Korea, Yi later recalled in his autobiography: "I still remember clearly how my father fired a revolver into the air and ranted, 'I shall banish those Japanese who stole our country!'"

The family lost Sadong Palace after 1945. The subsequent rise of the First Republic of Korea also resulted in the confiscation of many of the family's other properties. After the outbreak of the Korean War, Yi and his family fled from their residence in Samcheong-dong and were reduced to poverty.

At the beginning of the era of South Korea, the Imperial family was banished from the Imperial palace. Their lives became better after the president Park Chung Hee gained power. When studying Hankook University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Yi learned foreign languages, principally Spanish, and became fluent. He also studied foreign relations and history, to prepare for the diplomatic service. A series of coups d'état and civil discord made that impossible.

In his twenties during the 1960s, he used his musical talent to become a well-known singer and professional musician. He became known as the "Singing Prince". In 1967, he recorded the album Pigeon House. Later, Yi volunteered for the Korean military and served as an enlisted man in the Vietnam War. During the war, Yi was wounded and needed to return to Korea; around the same time, his mother died of stomach cancer. Yi was 26; severely depressed, he attempted suicide nine times.

After President Park was assassinated in 1979, the government's subsidy to the royal family was discontinued. Yi tried various jobs to support himself. In the 1980s he moved to the United States as an illegal immigrant, doing jobs including lawn mowing and cleaning swimming pools and buildings. At the same time he attempted to retrieve family properties seized by the republic. Under postwar Korean law, these are no longer able to be claimed.^{[citation needed]}