Legendary First-Generation Idol Rescued His Grandfather From North Korea

H.O.T.’s Lee Jae Won revealed that he had paid for the rescue of his grandfather from North Korea.

On May 15, Lee Jae Won appeared on a variety show with his father. In the episode, his father expressed regret for not being a better father before revealing the story of his own father and his family in North Korea.

I wasn’t a good father to my son while raising him. I feel so bad about that. I think it might be because of my own father. If I had been raised in a normal home, I would have taught those lessons to my son and would have been better to him, but the family was cut off.

— Lee Jae Won’s father

Lee Jae Won’s father then revealed that his own father had lived in North Korea for a long period of time after being drafted into the North Korean army.

Lee Jae Won’s grandfather wasn’t in South Korea. When I was three, I was separated from my father. He had been drafted by the army, so we thought it was the South Korean army, but it was for North Korea. Even after the war, he wasn’t able to come back to the South.

— Lee Jae Won’s father

Lee Jae Won’s father then stated that he was then contacted by his family and that Lee Jae Won had paid an exorbitant amount of money to rescue his grandfather.

Then one day, I heard from him. The price to get him (Lee Jae Won’s grandfather) over here (South Korea) was crazy. I asked my son what we should do, and Jae Won excitedly stated that we had to bring him over here. Thanks to my son, I was reunited with my father after 52 years.

— Lee Jae Won’s father

According to Lee Jae Won’s father, the idol’s grandfather had lived in South Korea for ten years before passing away. Unfortunately, Lee Jae Won’s father revealed that “He came over because we are family, but when I actually met him, because he had lived in North Korea (for so long), there was a distance.”

Meanwhile, Lee Jae Won is a legendary idol who is part of arguably K-Pop’s first internationally acclaimed boy group, H.O.T. The idol has since become a DJ and TV personality.