#coreanews

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Her Majesty’s birthday passed quietly, without the expected revelry dedicated by the king for our beloved queen 

The entire kingdom agrees this is very much in character with Her Majesty, who had an almost-permanent blush and shy smile during the Queens Day celebrations

Although of course that had everything to do with the King’s  unabashed affection rather than shyness at being the center of everyone’s attention

June passed without much buzz for royal watchers

The King had quietly returned to his duties, photographed in meetings and appearances close to Busan

Now, in a surprising turn of events absolutely staggering both in their lack of fanfare and the stunning beauty of the content, the Royal Public Affairs Office released portraits of the Queen. 

Portraits. Of. The Queen. 

“In celebration of Their Majesties’ first anniversary, the Royal Court is pleased to present Her Majesty’s portraits. 

“Exhibited to the Corean public for the first time, these portraits also unveil and chronicle new collections in the Crown Jewels, commissioned by His Majesty for the queen. 

The king and queen of Corea welcomed their first child, a son, on April 18. 

It seems only yesterday when this author first reported on the mysterious new queen of Corea

Now I must admit my eyes are going misty that we have come along since then, we have met the queen, she’s no longer mysterious. Her Majesty is, in fact, quite marvelous

And now the kingdom is rejoicing at the birth of the Prince Yeong-hwan

The prince royal of Corea was born on April 18 at 4:27am. The king was present at the birth, and the queen was attended by her appointed surgeons. 

No traditional easels were propped up here in this kingdom. Gwangyeongjeon Palace in Busan will not be thronged by crowds of well-wishers wishing to take a photo of a piece of paper framed on an easel. 

No, the announcement was simply released by the Royal Public Affairs Office, hand-delivered in luxurious cream cardstock to all establishments of the press. 

That’s the cardstock Corea’s newspapers have published. All the papers were late and had cream and blue front pages today. Once that cardstock was on hand, it was a race to the printers.

Needless to say, I’m going to have mine framed. 

His Royal Highness the Prince Yeong-hwan: what’s in a name? 

Yeon. What a lovely name. I’ve been told that the hangul of Yeon means several things like kite and year? And the hanja means “beautiful” and “graceful.” 

It’s pronounced “yun.” But never mind, we’re not going to use that name. We’re just lucky they shared the name, and so soon! When I was fortunate enough to interview the queen last October about the Eomoni Foundation, I knew the Her Majesty was already prepared for her baby. Name included!

And they don’t need to appear like they’re considering the name carefully: they’re the king and queen. They only need to please themselves. 

The Royal Monosyllable

Unlike their European counterparts and their three to four names, Corean royalty traditionally have monosyllabic names. 

Since the Goryeo dynasty, monosyllabic names were used by (and at one point restricted to) the royal family. 

But it has since been more used, though still uncommon. Parents simply prefer two syllables to one for their child’s given name. More options for the hanja characters. 

Some celebrities and idols have monosyllabic screen names. However, if you do come across a Corean with a monosyllabic name, it’s very likely it’s a family tradition, and also very likely a family tradition proudly continued because it was a granted royal privilege for service or contribution as vassal. 

The prince’s title and historic name

Every single one of us will refer to the little prince by his title, the Prince Yeong-hwan. 

Yeong means perpetual, eternal, brave, glory, honor, hero. It’s the first name of Jo Yeong, the king’s Unbreakable Sword and Captain of the Royal Guard. There’s a reason that name is popular, usually combined with another character, and not just because the mother was crushing on Jo Yeong. 

Hwan means shining, brilliant, lustrous, understandably a traditional addition for royal titles, and often given to first sons. Before he became king, His Majesty’s title was Prince Dae-hwan, as was his father’s before him. 

Popular speculation is that the little prince’s title honors Jo Yeong. 

Yeon is also the personal or birth name of Jangsu of Goguryeo, who reigned in a golden age when Goguryeo was one of the great powers in Asia, a veritable empire he expanded by conquest and ruled with justice and diplomacy. Jangsu successfully perpetuated what his father Gwanggaeto the Great started: a loosely unified Three Kingdoms. 

He perfected and innovated many of the kingdom’s political, economic and institutional systems. 

He also had the longest reign in East Asian history, ruling for 79 years until he died at age 98. 

And best of all, it was Yeon, or Jangsu, who shortened the kingdom’s name from Goguyreo to Goryeo, which evolved to how we know it today: Corea. 

Now I’ve seen some papers say the little prince royal has quite big shoes to fill. I say, his parents simply gave him a good name. 

And with parents like that, I’m sure His Royal Highness will be well-equipped to be a great king like his namesake, like his father, when he’s conferred as Crown Prince. 

A kingdom rejoicing

This is the first baby born to the royal family of Corea since His Majesty himself was born thirty four years ago. Sadly, the late queen had been in poor health, and soon passed when the king was only three years old. 

The whole kingdom held its collective breath when the queen was flown to CorGen. Though the media was promised a press conference, none came. 

The palace website banner has been updated about the queen’s health and the newspapers fairly flew off the stands at the announcement. 

We still wait to hear from Their Majesties, but everyone is content to know the queen and baby are safe and healthy. 

The Royal Public Affairs Office did give us a few tidbits. The palace had received 5734 gifts from friends of the royal family (royalty, aristocracy and democratic leaders of the world), Corean organizations and citizens, and international well-wishers.  

Corea also woke up and spent the day being serenaded by bells. There is still no standard for the bell ringing, but all proposals have been reviewed and approved by the palace. The result was an experience I won’t soon forget. It was like an all-day concert! Who knew bells could sound so lovely? 

Corea’s towns and cities coordinated with each other so that their bell ringing would be a veritable symphony. I've seen some social media posts of people who "followed the bells" and enjoyed their drive. 

Come evening, LED and clever engineering lit up several buildings and entire blocks across the cities of Corea. Blue for the prince, blue for the queen, and black and gold to celebrate the royal family. 

And if you drive around, you might feel overwhelmed at all the flags. Every home, every establishment flew the flag of Corea. 

Needless to say, the flower festivals are gearing up to become a celebration of the prince's birth. But I have a feeling this contingency has already been in the plans long ago! 

I am so tremendously happy. Congratulations, Your Majesties! 

“It seems only yesterday when this author first reported on the mysterious new queen of Corea” 

On this day last year, in fact! Corea Stories is one year old today! 

APRIL 14, 2021

We are counting down the days to the queen’s due date. We haven’t seen her around much. 

Her last public appearance was on White Day, in March, when she and the king attended the UAAC Baseball season pre-opening friendly match

We weren’t given permission to publish those photos, and many of them have been taken down because of the kerfuffle over the queen’s watch. See our report here. 

It seems Corea is much more conservative about protecting their queen than we thought.

The palace website’s static banner is still up, saying the queen and the baby are both well, and that Their Majesties are thankful for everyone’s concern and well-wishes.

No word about where the queen is currently residing. We do know they’ve left Pyeongchang. And we also know that there’s a tradition that the heir is born in Gwangyeongjeon. 

VIP 7, the royal wing recently reopened (and unexpectedly used in November during the queen’s accident) in CorGen, is now completed and sealed, should Her Majesty choose to have her delivery there  

It’s also another tradition that media photos are now cropped. 

While lucky Corean citizens and I (I live here with a working visa, so I count myself lucky) have seen the royal baby belly on television, international people who are also in love with these royals would see nothing. Nada. Zilch. 

The queen would only appear in print and online in cropped photos. 

Something about protecting the baby from evil eyes.

And if you want to test the terrifying efficiency of the Royal Public Affairs Office, be my guest. We’ve had reports that disallowed photos of the queen disappear in less than ten seconds.

Corea is one of the most modern and advanced in its technology and tolerance, but it does still have these charming quirks, and we respect them! 

The king is currently away. Along with the king and queen of Bhutan, the sultan of Brunei, and the agong of Malaysia, these royal heads of Asia are going to the United Kingdom to pay their respects to the queen of the United Kingdom on the passing of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. 

The funeral will be held on April 17. See our report on the expected royal guests here.

Because we miss her so much, here’s a recap of all our Queen Sightings. 

Read on AO3. 

APRIL 17, 2021

The palace has confirmed that Her Majesty the Queen has been admitted to CorGen today at 10:17 A.M.

This follows nationwide curiosity when news crews now on round-the-clock surveillance of the palace and CorGen spotted one of the royal helicopters landing on the CorGen helipad

His Majesty the King is still in the UK 

The palace website has been updated with a note that His Majesty has been informed and is on his way back. 

Not mentioned in the note, but we can properly deduce the king is no longer attending the funeral of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, scheduled for tomorrow, Sunday, April 17. If that confuses you, it’s still Saturday in the UK

Is the queen in peril?

Corea’s online communities are fairly screeching because the palace website has since removed the static banner saying the queen and the baby are both well. 

Why the brouhaha over that? After all, an update is imminent, isn’t it? 

This author, as should all of you, take comfort from the fact that if the queen had been in less than perfect health, the king wouldn’t have left her side. 

The queen is young and was a former officer in the police force, not counting her position in the kingdom’s classified investigatory services. Both posts have vigorous physical qualifications. That should assure us, too. 

Until we have statements from authorized sources, why should we conjure panic and outcomes none of us want? 

Well-meaning ahjummas I otherwise adore and respect are understandably shaken after the queen’s accident in November. (See our coverage here and here). They wonder if the queen was injured somehow in the palace or elsewhere. 

Several spring and flower festivals are ramping up across the country in conjunction with the Royal Horticultural Society’s Annual Flower Show. (See the royal floral mystery attached to the Show here). Her Majesty’s last public appearance was on White Day, but today’s report had Corea’s citizens posting their photos of the queen with messages of support hoping she’s okay. 

Here’s one such photograph from user JungjeonTaeEulah, posted on the palace website’s update comment section, and with 450,000 hearts as of this writing

It turns out the queen had popped up for a surprise incognito visit here and there, and it really drove up morale-- and the Corean spirit of excellence. 

Not only is the kingdom absolutely bananas over their king and queen, they’re also excited about this royal baby. Add to that a queen whom you never know might drop in on your town’s festival preparations and I’ve never seen a lovelier country in all my years as a nomad correspondent. I might stay here. 

But I digress. Aside from acknowledging that this is a day of suspense for all of us, this author will refrain from--and condemns-- sensationalist hysteria. 

Don’t think I’m made of stone. I’m barely hanging on to my training as a journalist by my fingernails. And I just had them done. 

Is the queen delivering the heir?

The Royal Public Affairs Office has declined to give any statement at this time, except for announcing that Mo Jin-ha, the private secretary to the sovereign, will hold a press conference, time to be determined. 

The media and all members of the press (and all Corean citizens) are requested to stay clear of the roads between CorGen and the airport. (My team is stationed in several spots with telephoto lenses the size of small cannons). 

CorGen and the office of Doctor Chae Song-eun, the queen’s OB, also decline to comment. 

This is speculation on this author’s part and by no means should my dear readers take this as reliable information even if we do have confirmation from past releases: The queen is within thirty-five to thirty-six weeks. At most, barely thirty-seven weeks. 

If she delivers, the royal prince or princess will be considered late preterm or early term. 

As far as we’ve been told, the queen reaches full term in the first to second week of May. This means the baby would be born 3 to 4 weeks early. 

A kingdom expectant

As we wait with bated breath for updates, here’s what we know: 

This is the kingdom’s first royal baby since the king himself was born in 1987, also earlier than his due date, but only by four days. 

This baby will immediately bump the Lady Se-jin from succession, and if a princess, will not be displaced as heir apparent by male siblings. The king has done away with male primogeniture in succession, recognizing it unconstitutional alongside the country’s laws on equality. 

Across the kingdom, bets have been placed on the baby’s gender. Boy and girl have equal odds, with some bets on multiple births (twins). 

Unlike in other royal pregnancies you might know of if you love royals, the name has been left well alone in Corea. No bets about the names here. No Corean citizen is willing to place bad luck on the baby. In Chinese and Corean tradition, you call the baby by a “milk name” to confuse evil spirits who might...well, spirit it away. 

We will receive an announcement within 24 hours of the birth, although the king and queen might decide to wait. It’s their prerogative. 

When the king was born, his birth was announced within the day. His name followed a day after. 

Because the king was the first Catholic heir apparent, the Catholic churches throughout the kingdom rang their bells on the day of his birth, ranging from peals that lasted three hours,  shorter songs that lasted five minutes, to joyful rings of three every minute. 

The current royal baby will also be Catholic. The Royal Court still hasn’t issued any standard protocol for the bell-ringing, but they do have specific rules for the gun salute, a long-standing tradition since the 1900s. 

If you want to go to one of the royal palaces and residences to watch the gun salute, see our report here.

Unlike other royal families, Corea doesn’t release portraits of their royal babies. 

Unless the current king and queen breaks tradition and recognizes our need to see their baby, we’ll see the prince or princess in the official portrait of the royal family when it’s released for the kingdom’s textbooks. 

FLASH UPDATE:

The king has arrived in the kingdom and is on his way to CorGen. 

Photographed here on his way to his car. His Majesty was immediately escorted to his awaiting convoy. (Telephoto lenses pay for themselves. This author is willing to do endorsements wholeheartedly).

It hasn’t even been six hours since we knew of the queen’s condition. Either the king’s jet made the flight in half the time, or the king had already been on his way before the queen was even taken to the hospital. 

Days and Nights of Forever Part 21

By insistent public demand, the continuation of The Heartbeat (and The Winter Palace 1, of course).

Their days and nights in Gyeoulgungjeon. A babymoon in the Corean Alps.

While Winter Palace 1 was The Arrival, this one is Warmth and Heat. This is fluffy fluff fluff and NC-17. 

Well, more than fluff. 

Sisterhood. Sibling shenanigans between two unlikely characters. Impertinent court ladies and cats. 

Read here. 

If you live in Corea and you’re a man, you probably have a burning resentment for the king always raising the bar when it comes to romantic gestures. 

Jeong Tae Eul, 30, married the King of Corea in July 2020 

The wedding followed Corea’s tradition of privacy for its royal family, with no photos released by the Royal Public Affairs Office 

We await the family photo instead, when the royal court publishes an official photograph showing off the royal heir. This photo is then updated into school textbooks across the country. 

The new queen has since made appearances, accompanying the king to small events in Corea, mostly in the academic field (the King of Corea’s love for math and sciences is well-documented) and for children’s causes  

The engagement shocked the country. Unlike the usual press conferences, the king declared the future queen in one of the capital’s streets, while riding to battle, just before literally cutting down supporters of the country’s most notorious traitor, former Prince Imperial Geum, Lee Lim

Real-life fairy tales still exist. Everyone around the world is charmed by this queen and her unique origin. She is not a celebrity nor a well-known beauty on campus, catwalk, or television who caught a royal’s eye. She’s a former detective, a lieutenant in Jongno. 

Corea’s Royal Public Affairs Office seems to prefer to let the country and the world speculate the rest. How she met the king, how they fell in love-- these are all still shrouded in mystery. 

The engagement was thus “announced” in early April. No further announcements followed until July when Corea rejoiced that their king, 33, was finally getting married. 

Unlike other current royals his age, the king grew up before the country’s eyes as king, not as prince. In tragic circumstances, he became the youngest reigning monarch of the modern world at age 8, until King Oyo of Uganda was crowned in 1995 at age 3. 

Asked about the palace’s traditionally strict reticence on the wedding, Corean citizens just shrug and say they’re happy to see the king and queen at events instead. 

Comments about the new queen are consistent. 

“They look really happy.”   “She seems very kind and warm.”  “We don’t really care about her history. The political parties want to dig it up because they want to know whose side she’d be on.” 

The king traditionally reads to children every month, and the queen has since joined him. Members of the media always try to get the kids to ask about the royal couple’s romance, but the king and queen skillfully deflect the questions with entertaining distractions, like what the king cooked for the queen that day, or the queen slowly filling the king’s dressing room with plants.  

The police of Jongno are also tight-lipped about their former colleague. Not a single source can be found among their ranks. The only comment anyone could get is that they’re unanimous in their love for their new queen. 

Speculation points to the king and queen’s whirlwind romance starting last year in October 2019, when the king repeatedly disappeared "in his study,” a common occurrence whenever the king was absorbed in a mathematical problem. 

In retrospect, it’s now apparent these disappearances might have involved the re-investigation-- and subsequent capture and execution-- of Lee Lim’s followers. Lee Lim, former Prince Imperial Geum, was executed in 1994, the current king’s uncle and half-brother to the previous king, who was murdered in Lee Lim’s attempted coup. 

(In full discretion, all unofficial press coverage of the Royal Court of Corea is requested to keep discussion of the betrayal in the royal family to a minimum. For more information, please visit the Royal Public Affairs Office website).

The queen being a detective at the time, this is the most plausible theory on the start of the royal romance. 

Born on May 27, 1990, the queen is 30 years old. 

In most photos, she doesn’t look a day over 20. Paparazzi and press alike are addicted to capturing that fresh, youthful face, and she looks even younger due to her very casual style. 

In a rare packet released from the Royal Public Affairs Office, we learn that the queen often chooses pieces from Chanel, Isabel Marant, Andersson Bell, Zimmerman, Ralph Lauren, Time and Uniqlo, among a large variety of designers and brands, at various price points. 

Corean citizens believe that this statement from the palace was to challenge the fashion industry to produce more accessible pieces, and to encourage the youth to aspire for comfort rather than luxury. 

It’s worth noting that Corea, with the 4th highest GDP in the world, is a huge market for haute couture. However, if you walk around the wealthiest neighborhoods and look at the high society photos in the papers, you’ll observe more relaxed, understated elegance as the current style. 

Loose or simply done hair, luxury pieces dressed down with more casual items, minimal jewelry. 

That’s the influence of the queen. With other female royals of the world perpetually in dresses, suits and hats, this author finds the queen of Corea even lovelier. 

We breathlessly await whatever crumbs the Royal Public Affairs Office deigns to give us. 

-----------------------------------------

(Yeah, I’m crazy) 

This is supposed to be a Daily Mail article. And yes, this article is from the future when everything’s all happy. Dammit. 

I’m now so scared about the finale so I’m distracting myself with this. 

Clickbaity Daily Mail title. Check. 

Kim Go Eun in her prettiest, “candid” photos. Check. 

No mention of Prince Buyeong’s death, since Gon might have fixed that. 

(Have you noticed Tae-Eul has a lot of plants in her room and in their living room too?) 

There are so many other gorgeous photos, but I picked the ones from events, or ones that look like it’s taken from afar by telephoto lenses haha (like the one where she’s wearing that soft white dress in the second collage).