A Kazakhstan actor in his 50s, Kim Han-nyeon, who had been working in Korea to raise money for the restoration of the 'Koryo Theatre' in his homeland committed suicide on May 15 in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province following the death of his wife in hospital on May 9. His remains were transported back to Kazakhstan, Monday.
Graduating from the Sakhalin Theatre Institute, the Kim acted on the stage of the Koryo Theater in Almaty for 20 years. Founded In 1932 under the rule of Japanese imperialism, the Koryo Theatre served ethnic Koreans living in the area after their forced migration during Japanese colonial rule.
However, the theater has been on the decline after suffering from financial hardships since the mid 1990's to the point where even devoted actors and actresses began leaving one after another.
Kim worked as a part time translator for Lee Jeong-hwan, who ran a non-steel metal plan in Almaty for W80,000 a month and with his help came to Korea in May 2001 with his wife to work for a medical equipment exporter started-up by Lee.
On April 29, however Kim's wife Regina suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and collapsed, and in spit of major surgery died 10 days later. Kim unable to pay the W17.4 million hospital bill and burial fees took his own life.
The couple's two daughters Reny and Tanya, both university students, said crying on an overseas phone call, their father would say don't forget to come over to see him in South Korea after graduation to learn Korean.
(Yun Seul-gi, cupidmom@chosun.com)
