Yeo Esther and Hong Hye-geol. [Herald Pop (now Herald Muse)]
Yeo Esther and Hong Hye-geol. [Herald Pop (now Herald Muse)]

Hong Hye-geol, husband of physician and broadcaster Yeo Esther, 61, has denied allegations that his wife is of Chinese-Korean descent.

Hong addressed the claims on his Facebook page Friday, saying he felt compelled to respond after a wave of comments following a broadcast suggested Yeo was Chinese-Korean. He then walked through the records of her great-grandfather, grandfather and father.

Citing materials from the Independence Hall of Korea, Hong said Yeo's great-grandfather, Yeo Dong-yeon (1884–1951), was a respected clan elder based in the Seongju area of North Gyeongsang Province during the Japanese colonial period who supported Korean national education, including backing the Jayang Hagwon school.

Of her grandfather, Yeo Sang-won (1904–1975), Hong said he was a prominent businessman and journalist in the Daegu and North Gyeongsang region active across both the Japanese colonial era and the modern history of the Republic of Korea. He served as head of the Daegu Chamber of Commerce and Industry for 15 years, co-founded the Daegu Ilbo newspaper and partnered with Lee Byung-chul and others in the textile industry.

Regarding her father, Yeo Man-young (1939–1986), Hong said that while serving as planning director at the Daegu Ilbo in 1971, he distributed leaflets during a campaign rally in Daegu for presidential candidate Kim Dae-jung, drawing the wrath of President Park Chung-hee. The paper was shut down, Yeo Man-young was imprisoned, and the family — including his wife — was forcibly expelled to Japan. All family assets were reportedly transferred to Seongeop Corporation. Hong also noted that Yeo Man-young had called his daughter "Aechu" as a term of endearment, but died of a chronic illness when she was in her second year of medical school.

Yeo Esther, a physician by training, founded a health supplement company in 2009. Its annual sales are said to approach 300 billion won ($215 million).


paq@heraldcorp.com