Chaiyong Satjipanon, left, outgoing Thai ambassador to Korea, poses with Park Chul, president of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Thursday, after donating $100,000 to the school. / Courtesy of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

By Yun Suh-young

Former Thai Ambassador to Korea Chaiyong Satjipanon has donated the $100,000 that he received in condolence money for his wife’s death to the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, the school said Thursday.

Ambassador Satjipanon left for the U.S. Tuesday where he will start his next posting. The donation is to be used for scholarships.

“We’re very thankful to Ambassador Satjipanon for his kindness to our country and to our school despite the sorrow he must have suffered from his wife’s death,” said an official from the university.

Amb. Satjipanon’s wife Thitinart Satjipanon died last September of acute enterostenosis within three days of being hospitalized at Soonchunhyang University Hospital in Seoul. He claimed the death of his wife was due to the hospital’s improper emergency room care and sued the hospital for professional negligence resulting in her death.

Satjipanon, however, withdrew the charges before completing his term here saying that he will not hold them accountable for civil responsibilities anymore.

“He said he wanted to use the condolence money he received from a Korean company for Korean students. He chose our school because we teach Thai at our Department of Oriental Languages and because we keep in close touch with the embassy,” said a school official.

The school said it will create a “Thitinart Scholarship” with the donation and award it to Thai students studying in Korea and Korean students studying Thai. Two students, one Thai and one Korean, will be awarded each semester.

The donation renewed warmer relations between the two countries that were fraught with tension when the foreign envoy reprimanded the Korean medical staff after his wife’s death.

The school official quoted Satjipanon as saying that that he hopes the scholarship will encourage students and bring the two countries closer together.