The Famous Korean Singer Who Had An Affair With A Married Student

A famous South Korean singer had an illicit affair with a student—and one who was married at that.

Yun Sim Deok is known in present times as South Korea’s first professional soprano singer. She was born in Pyongyang in 1897, the second daughter in a family of four kids who, despite being poor, were able to receive formal education thanks to her devout Christian parents.

She displayed an prodigious level of musical talent since she was young, graduating from Gyeongseong Girls’ High School where she worked as a teacher for a year before studying in Japan at Aoyama Gakuin as the first Korean student who received a Government General scholarship. She eventually transferred to Tokyo Music School where she studied vocal music.

Her story was depicted in the SBS miniseries The Hymn of Death starring Lee Jong Suk as Kim Woo Jin, her love interest, and Shin Hye Sun as the singer herself.

Their story was one filled with tension, having met in 1921 when Kim Woo Jin was a student of Literature in Waseda University, Japan. He was already married with a Korean wife who was raising their children back in their hometown, Jeolla Province.

Yun Sim Deok and Kim Woo Jin had an affair while on a road trip with fellow Korean students. They went their separate ways for five years, with the former becoming a pop singer and the latter pursuing a career in literature and drama.

Their love story which started with hopeless desires ended in tragedy. In 1926, Yun Sim Deok urgently called Kim Woo Jin to Osaka, threatening that she would kill herself if he did not. He hurriedly came to meet her and on August 4, the the two jumped into the dark sea from a passenger ship that was taking them from Simonoseki to Busan.

They were only 29 years old.