well-known singer and professional musician while in his twenties, having several hit songs. Later, Yi Seok volunteered for the Korean military and served as an enlisted man in the Vietnam War. During the war, Yi Seok was wounded and needed to return to Korea; around the same time, his mother died of stomach cancer. Yi Seok was 26; severely depressed, he attempted suicide nine times. After President Park was assassinated in 1979, the government's subsidy to the royal family was discontinued. Yi Seok tried various jobs to support himself. In the 1980s he moved to the United States as an illegal immigrant, doing jobs including lawn mowing and cleaning swimming pools and buildings. At the same time he attempted to retrieve family properties seized by the republic. Under postwar Korean law, these are no longer able to be claimed. With the changing political climate in the early 1990s, Yi Seok returned to Korea. The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) produced a semi-fictional TV programme of his life. Recent activities In April 2004, his eldest daughter Yi Hong performed for the first time in a singing show from SBS, and Yi Seok starred on stage with her as celebration. By August of the same year, Yi Seok started to run a guesthouse SeungKwangJae (승광재) in Jeonju Hanok Village, which is also his current residence. The name reference of the guesthouse is the era name of Emperor Gojong, Kwangmu (光武), and seung (승) stands for "succession". SeungKwangJae is sometimes rented by the government of Jeonju and it was built of wood, similar to the traditional way. Yi Seok runs the place with his supporters. He said, "There are many things to do in Jeonju since this is where the Joseon dynasty founded. I'm going to spread the culture of the royal family and re-illuminate Jeonju's history." On 16 July 2005, Yi Seok's cousin Yi Ku passed away without an heir. The Jeonju Lee Royal Family Association announced, on July 22, that Yi Won would become Yi Ku's successor, according to his will. During the funeral, an angered Yi Seok commented that "the funeral is not yet ended, and it's inappropriate to discuss about adopting an heir by now". Later, Yi Seok claimed that "adopting a son after death doesn’t make any sense," and he also claimed that Yi Bangja, his late aunt and the mother of Yi Ku, named him as "first successor"