Jeon Woo-won "Jeon Du-hwan's bedroom wall filled with money bags... He even gave 10 million won to guests"

"Only Mother Is 'Proud' Among Family"
"Family Bound by Money... I Am the Abandoned Son"
"Grandfather Is an Object of Fear"

Jeon Woo-won, the grandson of the late former President Jeon Du-hwan, who visited Gwangju to apologize to the victims and families of the May 18 Gwangju Uprising, revealed that only his mother among his family supports his actions. He said that other family members, including his father and grandmother, have not responded to his attempts to contact them.

Woo-won appeared on KBS's 'The Live' on the 4th and said, "Only my mother said, 'I am proud of you, you really worked hard.' The family members who told me to come to Korea when I was in the U.S. do not answer my calls."

He continued, "(My father) Jeon Jae-yong remarried, so I feel like an abandoned son. I want to believe that I had the love of a beautiful family, but there was less of that than I thought. Our family was held together by money. After investigations into fines and slush funds, we suffered economic damage and the money disappeared, and we scattered apart," he explained.

He added, "I love my family, but separately, I think laundering slush funds, committing crimes, and denying them are sins."

He revealed that former President Jeon was a "figure of fear." Woo-won said, "My grandfather was more of a deified figure to people than a warm person. Everyone tried to show their best side to him. I was also forced by my parents to act cute and behave well, which was a fearful existence."

He also recalled, "Many people visited my grandfather, and it was customary to give them money envelopes or allowances. I think people showed more loyalty and followed him because of that." He remembered the amounts being in the range of tens of millions to millions of won. He explained, "There were several bags containing money envelopes on the bedroom wall, and there were always many like that. When guests came, it was given as a token of gratitude."

Woo-won said he is willing to testify about these matters to investigative agencies but added, "My family is very meticulous and has never been judged by the law until now, so I don't think anything will come out even if they investigate now."

When asked if he had tried to persuade other family members regarding the May 18 apology, he said, "Jeon Jae-yong is someone who says that former President Jeon must have gone to heaven. I thought there was no need to persuade him, so I did not even talk about it. As a family member, I should have talked, but I couldn't."