[Sony Music]
[Sony Music]

Singer Shim Su-bong has opened up about the deep trauma she carried for decades after the Oct. 26, 1979 assassination of President Park Chung-hee — a wound so severe it kept her from touching a guitar for years.

Shim appeared on a Chuseok special of the KBS 2TV variety program "Sinssang Chulsi Pyeonstorang," a celebrity home-cooking show, which aired Thursday, alongside her grandnephew, singer Son Tae-jin.

During the broadcast, Shim opened the doors of the home she has lived in for 30 years and performed an emotional piece on the piano.

In conversation with Son, she revealed the psychological toll the assassination had taken on her. "After the Oct. 26 incident, I couldn't pick up a guitar at all," she said, going on to share how she had only recently been able to play again and describing the anguish she had endured in the years since.

Shim was a firsthand witness to the killing of former President Park Chung-hee at a Korea Central Intelligence Agency safe house in Gunjeong-dong, Seoul, on Oct. 26, 1979. In the aftermath, she faced a prolonged broadcasting ban and years of political turbulence, enduring a long period of public silence.

"It feels as though I channel my sorrow through music," Shim said, reflecting with quiet composure on 49 years in the industry — a career shaped by her struggle to process the pain and scars left by one of modern Korean history's darkest moments, expressed through keys and melody.


min3654@heraldcorp.com