Park Geun-hye releases Park Chung-hee's letter amid 'The Assassin' controversy: 'I wish I had taken the bullet instead'

Former President Park Geun-hye has released a letter written by her father, former President Park Chung-hee, amid a controversy over historical distortion surrounding "The Assassin," a film depicting the assassination of her mother, the late former first lady Yuk Young-soo.

The letter, dated Aug. 17, 1974 — two days after Yuk was shot during a Liberation Day ceremony — was shared Friday through People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Young-ha. In it, Park Chung-hee wrote to his daughter: "Your mother took the bullet that was meant for your father. I think again and again how much better it would have been if I had been shot and your mother had lived."

He continued: "Your mother took the bullet in my place and left your father with all responsibility for you children and for this country. At first, it felt as though the sky had collapsed and I truly could not compose myself — but I resolved that I must be the first to find courage, and that from now on I would endure and bear everything. You, too, must steel your heart and endure as much as you can."

Park Chung-hee also wrote to his daughter, who was 22 at the time: "You must now take your mother's place. Though your father could never fill even a fraction of her role, I will make whatever sacrifice it takes to be a good father."

He closed the letter by writing: "Knowing that Geun-hye will be back in just 10 more hours, I wait with every moment feeling like an eternity — yet when I think of greeting you alone at the door without your mother, everything goes dark before me."

Yoo said the letter was received by Park Geun-hye while she was traveling home from France, where she had been studying, after her mother was shot.

"While studying in France, former President Park Geun-hye was told by the embassy that something had happened to her mother and that she needed to return home," Yoo said. "While waiting at the airport for her flight, she learned from a French newspaper that her mother had been assassinated."

Yoo added that because there were no direct flights at the time, Park had to travel through Tokyo. "She said she cried every tear she would ever cry for the rest of her life on the way to Tokyo," he said. "When she transferred at Tokyo airport, her younger sister, Park Geun-ryeong, handed her their father's letter, and that is when she read it."

"Former President Park had kept this letter without ever showing it to the world," Yoo said. "Had it not been for this film, the letter would never have been made public."

He described the letter as "a club to correct the left wing's distortion of history — their desire to spread biased conspiracy theories like a plague." Yoo also demanded that the director and production team behind "The Assassin" "apologize for defaming the late President Park Chung-hee through historical distortion, and publicly ask forgiveness from the bereaved family and the public who have been hurt."