page_title: Yi Seok
section_title: Recent activities
hierarchical_section_title: Yi Seok / Biography / Recent activities
caption_attribution_description: English: A statue of a seated King Sejong at Gwanghwamun Plaza. King Sejong was the fourth king of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) who created Hangeul with his scholars.
context_page_description: Yi Seok is a member of the House of Yi, the former royal house of Joseon and Korean Empire. He is the 10th son of Prince Yi Kang, the fifth son of Emperor Gojong of Korea, and one of his partners, Lady Hong Chŏng-sun, a former telephone operator. In his earlier life, Yi gained fame as a singer, the "singing prince", with a 1967 album "Pigeon House". Since 2004, he has been employed by the city of Jeonju to promote tourism, and he is also a professor of history at Jeonju University.
  As an activist on monarchy restoration, Yi Seok promotes his concept regarding the creation of a constitutional monarchy while co-existing with the Presidential system, making the restoration of the Imperial family as a symbolic existence.As such, Yi Seok founded an organization "Korean Imperial Family Cultural Foundation" in August 2006. Yi Seok's guesthouse, as well as his residence, "SeungKwangJae" in Jeonju Hanok Village, was once visited by the former president Roh Moo-hyun, the President Moon Jae-in with his wife, as well as Park Won-soon and Harry B. Harris Jr.
  In May 2016, Yi Seok became the brand ambassador of the Liancourt Rocks by Ulleung County.
context_section_description: In April 2004, his eldest daughter, Yi Hong performed for the first time in a singing show from SBS, and Yi Seok starred on stage with her as celebration. By August of the same year, Yi Seok started to run a guesthouse "SeungKwangJae" (승광재) in Jeonju Hanok Village, which is also his current residence. The name reference of the guesthouse is the era name of Emperor Gojong, Kwangmu (光武), and seung (승) stands for "succession". In fact, "SeungKwangJae" is a place rent by the government of Jeonju and it was built in wood similar to the traditional way and Yi Seok runs the place with his supporters. He said, "There are many things to do in Jeonju since this is where the Joseon dynasty founded. I'm going to spread the culture of the royal family and re-illuminate Jeonju's history."
  On 16 July 2005, Yi Seok's cousin Yi Ku passed away without an heir, and the Jeonju Lee Royal Family Association announced, on July 22, that Yi Won would become Yi Ku's successor according to his will. During the funeral, Yi Seok was angered by the decision and commented that "the funeral is yet ended, and it's inappropriate to discuss about adopting an heir by now".  Later, Yi Seok claimed that "adopting a son after death doesn’t make any sense," and he also claimed that Yi Bangja, his late aunt and the mother of Yi Ku, named him as "first successor" in her will. In August 2006, for the purpose of monarchy restoration, Yi Seok founded the organization "Korean Imperial Family Cultural Foundation" (황실문화재단) and acted as its director. On the other hand, Yi Hae-won, one of his elder half-sisters, self-proclaimed as an empress and held a coronation on 29 September 2006; Yi Seok was invited but he didn't attend the ceremony.
  The Statue of King Sejong in Gwanghwamun Plaza was erected on 9 October 2009, and Yi Seok attended the unveiling ceremony. According to a talk on 4 September 2014, Yi Seok revealed that there's no existing contemporary portrait of Sejong the Great, and the appearance of the statue was based on the faces of Yi Seok himself and that from the portrait of Grand Prince Hyoryeong, King Sejong's older brother, which is now preserved at Gwanaksan.
  On 7 August 2018, Harry B. Harris Jr., the United States Ambassador to South Korea, paid a visit to SeungKwangJae. The mayor of Jeonju, Kim Seung-su (김승수), said, "The prince [Yi Seok] is our history and our spirit. I would like to express my deep gratitude to the ambassadors for visiting this symbolic space."
  On October 6, 2018, Yi declared Andrew Lee, a distant Korean-American relative and an entrepreneur, to be the "Korean Crown Prince".
caption: The Statue of King Sejong in Gwanghwamun Plaza, Seoul