Descendant from US missionary family to run for Assembly

Won Hee-ryong (left), the former land and transport minister for President Yoon Suk Yeol, and Yohan Ihn, the former chief of the ruling People Power Party’s reform committee, wave to residents of Incheon near Seoul on Feb. 26. Won is running for office in the Incheon district against Rep. Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party of Korea chief and onetime presidential candidate. (Yonhap)

Ihn Yohan, who is from the fourth generation of a US missionary family that helped build churches and schools in Korea during Japanese colonial rule, is running for office in the April 10 general election as a ruling People Power Party candidate.

The People Power Party committee for nominating candidates for the general election asked In, whose American name is John Linton, to run, and he has accepted, according to those familiar with the matter.

Ihn, director of the Severance Hospital International Health Care Center, served as the chief of the ruling party’s short-lived reform committee, tasked with renewing the party to advance its chances in the upcoming election, which disbanded in early December last year.

The party, saying that the party outsider was the “ideal person” to lead the committee, cited his upbringing in the Jeolla Provinces -- traditionally stronghold regions for the rival Democratic Party of Korea -- and his contributions to South Korea’s pro-democracy movement in May 1980.

As the chief of the reform committee, Ihn had proposed barring lawmakers who had served multiple terms from launching bids in parts of the country that typically vote conservative and other measures.

While Ihn previously had said he had no intention of running for the National Assembly, he decided to accept the party’s nomination, a party insider said.

The People Power Party’s recruitment of Ihn this time comes amid a controversy surrounding another party candidate, Do Tae-woo, who has been accused of undermining the pro-democracy movement of May 1980 -- a sensitive subject for many in the Jeolla Provinces. Do had suggested there was a possibility that North Korea had attempted to intervene to rile up the South Korean public against the government at the time.

It seems the ruling party sees that Ihn, given his background, could be the point man to turn Jeolla voters in its favor.

The naturalized South Korean, 64, who was a medical student at Yonsei University at the time, served as an interpreter between the protesters and the foreign press during the May pro-democracy uprising in the South Jeolla Province city of Gwangju.

His great-grandfather is Eugene Bell, a Southern Presbyterian missionary who taught and built schools and medical centers in North and South Jeolla Provinces during the Japanese colonial period. His grandfather, William Linton, also a missionary and an educator, participated South Korea’s movement for independence from Japan. His father, Hugh Linton, who fought in the Battle of Inchon as a lieutenant colonel in the US Navy, and was another missionary here.

Ihn Johan was part of the transition team of then-President-elect Park Geun-hye in 2013.

By Kim Arin(arin@heraldcorp.com)