'Mistrot Tteokjip Daughter' Kim Soyu, Update on Caring for Father with Epilepsy... "Hospital Bills Alone 100 Million Won"

After Remarried Father Collapses, New Spouse Disappears
Unable to Leave Alone, Takes on Caregiver Role and Nursing Life

Singer Kim Soyu (33), who gained fame as the 'Daughter of the Rice Cake Shop in Sadang-dong' after appearing on TV Chosun's 'Tomorrow is Miss Trot,' has recently shared an update on her situation, drawing sympathy from netizens.

Singer Kim Soyu and her father, Sangcheol.
[Image source=KBS]

On the 25th, KBS announced that from the 26th to the 30th, KBS 1TV's 'Human Theater' will reveal the current status of singer Kim Soyu, who has been caring for her father, Kim Sangcheol, who collapsed due to epilepsy last February.

Originally known as the 'Daughter of the Rice Cake Shop' for helping her mother run the rice cake shop alone, Kim Soyu, after finishing her schedule on the show, headed not to her mother's shop but to a nursing hospital where her father is staying. She devotedly cared for her father, who is bedridden and unable to speak, by singing to him and wiping his face.

Kim Soyu said, "The private nursing and hospital fees cost 1.4 million won per week, and over the course of a year, the total expenses have easily exceeded 100 million won. I have to perform at weekend events to pay for my father's care, but on weekends without events, I worry anxiously about how to cover the nursing fees."

Trot singer Kim Soyu (33). [Image source=KBS]

Kim Soyu's parents divorced due to financial difficulties when she was a freshman in college. Her father remarried, but after collapsing from epilepsy, his new spouse disappeared. Unable to leave her father alone, Kim Soyu took on the role of his guardian and has been caring for him ever since. Last February, while attending a local event, she rushed to her father's hospital room whenever she had a moment, but eventually collapsed from exhaustion and was taken to the intensive care unit.

Meanwhile, Kim Soyu's mother recently transformed from the rice cake shop owner to the owner of a sundae soup restaurant. After the divorce, she has not met her ex-husband Sangcheol and expressed complex feelings upon hearing news about him.