By Kim Ji-soo
Rhee Young-hee, a journalist and scholar, who was also an inspirational liberal voice for a generation of Koreans, passed away Sunday due to a liver ailment. He was 81.
Born in Sakju, North Pyeongan Province in 1929 in what is now North Korea, he started out as a reporter for Yonhap new agency in 1957. He then worked at the daily Chosun Ilbo. From 1972 to 1995, he taught journalism at Hanyang University.
Rhee was an outspoken social critic, both as a journalist and as a professor that led him to have a rocky relationship with the former authoritarian governments.
In 1961, he contributed to foreign media an article opposing the May 16 coup led by Park Chung-hee, and in 1964, he was imprisoned for writing about the two Koreas. He was imprisoned once again in 1977 for authoring a book on China, in which he was accused of beautifying the communist nation. And in 1989, he was arrested for violating the National Security Law for trying to organize a media trip to North Korea for the liberal-leaning daily, Hankyoreh.
During his period as a professor, Rhee was let go twice while teaching at Hanyang University during both the Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan governments.
Throughout his life he has received numerous awards and was the prolific writer of such books as “Logic for an Era of Transition” and “Going Beyond Division.” But it was perhaps his book, “Logic for an Era of Transition” that had the strongest lasting impact. In the book, he sharply criticized sweeping anti-communism, shattering preconceptions about it and the book became a must-read for collegians in the 1970s and 1980s.
After suffering a stroke in 2000 Rhee continued to speak on social issues, but in 2005, he published an autobiography marking an end to his influential writing and social activism.
He is survived by his wife, and two sons and a daughter. The funeral will take place Wednesday at Yonsei Severance Hospital.