Actress Park Ju-a

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Veteran actress Park Ju-a, 69, passed away Monday morning following surgery for cancer.

However, the family of the deceased insists that her death was the result of medical malpractice and they will not hold a funeral service unless the hospital provides a convincing explanation.

She was diagnosed as being in the incipient stage of renal-pelvis (part of the kidney) cancer and underwent surgery at the Yonsei Shinchon Severance Hospital in April. She was pronounced brain-dead Saturday, according to the family.

Park started acting in 1962 after passing an open recruitment exam at KBS.

She appeared in a wide range of dramas from "Three Sisters" (1982) to "Taejo Wang Geon" (2000), portraying characters including an affectionate mother and a charismatic heroine.

Recently, she played a kind-hearted grandmother in dramas such as "On Air" (2008) and "City Hall" (2009).

She starred in MBC's daily drama "I Trusted Him" (2011) before having the operation.