A local government's regional history report identifying An Sang-ho (1872-1927), the great-grandfather of actress Ha Young, whose legal name is An Ha-young, as a figure linked to suspicions surrounding the poisoning of Emperor Gojong has drawn attention.
The document is an academic research report titled "The Origins of Place Names and Clan Histories in Gunpo," published in February 2004 by the city of Gunpo in Gyeonggi Province, which commissioned the study from the Institute of Traditional Culture Contents at Kyonggi University. Chapter 4, "Figures of Gunpo," lists An Sang-ho first among modern figures.
The report states that An graduated from the Tokyo Jikei Medical School in June 1902, becoming the first Korean to obtain a Japanese medical license, returned to Korea in 1904 to serve as a court physician to Emperor Sunjong, and opened a private clinic in Seoul's Jongno 3-ga district the following year. The disputed passage concerns January 1919. When Gojong collapsed from a cerebral hemorrhage, An, recorded in the report as a court physician, took part in his treatment alongside a Japanese doctor named Moriyasu, and the report says the medical team came under suspicion of administering poison at the instigation of the Japanese immediately after Gojong's death. The report does not treat this as established fact, however, writing that "a lack of relevant material makes it impossible to render a careless judgment on the matter." The theory that Gojong was poisoned has not been historically established.
Records from a neighboring local government describe the same man differently. Regional histories from the Anyang area present An as "a figure with a strong anti-Japanese national consciousness." The city of Anyang posted an entry in 2020 stating that he had been falsely accused in connection with the poisoning theory, then made the post private in recent days.
Separately from the poisoning suspicions, documented details of his activities have also come to light in succession. The controversy began in early August, when Ha Young described her family as doctors for four generations on a KBS entertainment program. It was subsequently confirmed that An appeared on a 1916 list of councilors of the Daejeong Friendship Society, a pro-Japanese organization, and that he was among the medical staff who treated Lee Wan-yong after he was gravely wounded in a 1909 attack by the independence activist Lee Jae-myung. Her agency, Bisters Entertainment, said on August 10 that the reports were "groundless," then acknowledged the records and apologized a day later. Ha Young posted an apology on social media on the 12th. An Sang-ho is not listed in the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators or on the government's list of pro-Japanese, anti-national collaborators. What Bang Hak-jin, secretary general of the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities, who took part in compiling the dictionary, addressed on radio on the 13th was not whether he is listed but a judgment on the factual basis of his activities.
The matter has also reached the National Assembly. Rep. Park Eun-jung of the Rebuilding Korea Party called at the Legislation and Judiciary Committee on August 21 for an investigation into whether the assets were acquired through pro-Japanese collaboration, citing records from the 1910s showing that An held about 2,700 pyeong, or roughly 8,900 square meters, of land in the area of 235 Geumjeong-ri, Nam-myeon, Siheung County. The land was expropriated by the state in 1983. Whether his descendants continued to hold it, whether they received compensation and any connection to the current assets of Ha Young's family have not been confirmed. Park cited an amendment to the Special Act on the Confiscation of Property of Pro-Japanese Collaborators, which takes effect in December, in raising the possibility of a fresh investigation.
