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Jo Yeong (Hangul: 조영; Hanja: 曹影; born 19 September 1991), is the Captain of the Corean Royal Guard and a former naval officer in the Corean Royal Navy. When he left the Royal Navy in 2018 he held the rank of soryong (소령), equivalent to Lieutenant Commander, and became the youngest person since 1709 to assume the position of Captain of the Royal Guard, at age 27.

Jo is close friends with the current King of Corea, Lee Gon, who he has known since they were children.

Early life and education
Jo Yeong was born in Busan, Corea, on September 19, 1991. He's the oldest son of Admiral Jo Cheol-min and author Park Ran. In 2011, he became the older brother to fraternal twins.

His father, Admiral Jo, had close connections to King Lee Ho, the second King of Corea, and Jo was introduced at the Royal Court at an early age. He met the current King of Corea, Lee Gon, in January 1995, shortly after Lee Gon's coronation following the murder of Lee Ho. Jo spent a lot of his childhood at the Haeungung Palace along with the four years older king, often following along with the Royal Guard. He got his own security detail for a while at age 11 when threats had been made against him. The investigation led to five arrests, but only two convictions. The incident led Jo to become known to the general public in Corea. Today, there are multiple fan accounts on social media following him.

Jo attended Ocean Bay Elementary School and East Haeundae Middle School followed by Busan International High School, where he took Chinese and Japanese. He also took taekwondo and advance mathematics as electives. He graduated with above average grades, his best subjects being geography and history.[citation needed] Following his graduation Jo applied for the Corean Royal Naval Academy and was accepted. There was some controversy at the time regarding nepotism, seeing how his father had just been promoted to Admiral, but Jo excelled at the Academy and graduated at the top of his class in 2013.[citation needed]

Navy
Jo was commissioned straight out of the Academy and was stationed on board the KOCS Marado before he applied for, and was accepted to, Corea's special forces officer school. After that he was deployed to the East Sea (Sea of Japan), on board the KOCS Hyang Ro Bong.

Jo rose in ranks to daewei (대위; Lieutenant) before asking to be released from the Royal Navy in October 2018 to instead become Captain of the Royal Guard. Upon leaving, he was granted the rank of soryong (소령; Lieutenant Commander).

Royal Guard
In the summer of 2018, Son Sung-ho, then Captain of the Royal Guard, announced his retirement at the end of the year. At that time, the Royal Court approached Jo Yeong, offering him the position and he accepted. He asked to be released from the Royal Navy and was granted lave in October 2018. He formally started as Captain of the Royal Guard on 1 December 2018, making him the youngest person to hold the position since 1709. There were once again talk about nepotism surrounding this appointment, but since the Corean Royal Guard is the king's personal security and not a branch of the military, the king is free to appoint whoever he wants.[citation needed]

In February 2020, Jo was shot. The exact circumstances surrounding the incident has not been made official, other than that it happened in service of the Crown. He was on medical leave until April 2021, during which time sub-captains Seok Ho-pil and Park In-young shared the duties.

Honours and awards

 * Royal Order of the Tiger
 * Distinguished Service Order
 * Order of Merit (Corea)
 * Order of National Security Merit, second grade
 * Order of the Navy Star
 * Silver Jubilee Medal of King Lee Gon
 * National Defence Service Ribbon
 * Navy Sea Service Deployment Ribbon
 * Combat Action Ribbon

Since childhood, Jo Yeong has also had the title the Unbreakable Sword (천하제일껌). He is the only one to have been bestowed with that title, and it is unclear if it's official.

Private life
Jo lives in Marine City, Haeundae, Busan. Since he left the Royal Naval Academy, Jo has participated in a yearly charity 10k run arranged by the Corean Asthma Foundation. He didn't start in 2020 due to his injury, but again in 2021. He's also made substantial donations to Rainbow Future (무지개 미래), an organisation fighting for suicide prevention in LGBTQ+ youth.

He's a big k-pop fan, his favourite group being Club89.[citation needed] He also supports Busan FC. In 2020, during his medical leave, he visited his old elementary school for his siblings' career day. During that year he also spoke at the Naval Academy.

Relationship with Lee Gon
Jo Yeong met Lee Gon when they were four and eight years old (Corean age), respectively, in connection to the latter's coronation and the mourning of King Lee Ho and the two seem to have been inseparable until Lee Gon entered into the Naval Academy at age 19 and Jo started high school. They still remained close friends even though Jo stopped spending the weekends at the Haeungung Palace. Lee Gon attended Jo's high school graduation, which caused a lot of commotion and led to nine arrests (no convictions). It's unclear how much contact they had during Jo's own time at the Naval Academy, or during his time on active duty, as Lee Gon at this time took on more of his own duties and Jo was away from Busan for years.

After Jo joined the Royal Guard, Lee Gon is rarely seen in public without him.

Since Jo was in his late teens, there have been rumours about a romantic relationship between him and Lee Gon, sparking numerous fan fiction all over the internet as well as a national discussion on the line of succession and whether or not an adoptive child of gay parents could inherent the throne (currently, Se-jin Lee, M.D., granddaughter of Prince Buyeong and second cousin once removed to the king is first in line to the throne ). Neither the Royal Court nor the men have commented on these rumours.

Ancestry
Jo is from the Changnyeong Jo clan (昌寧 曺氏). He's the 15th generation to serve the Crown, going back to Jo Sang-gyeong who served under King Yeongjong of Joseon during the Qing invasion. Most of his ancestors served in the capacity of either military or as scholars, two were ministers; most notably Jo Jin-ui who is said to have had a relationship with his horse.

The first to have had a close personal relationship with the king, however, is Jo's grandfather, Jo Chi-seon, who was friends with both King Haejong and Prince Inpyeong. The three of them drove the change post-World War II to end the feudal rule of Corea and establish the quasi-democracy of today.[citation needed] According to some[Who?], it was Jo Chi-seon who made sure that the monarch still holds absolute power.

Jo's mother's birth name is Park Mi-sun, Park Ran is her pen name. She is from the Miryang Park clan (密陽 朴氏), and descendent from Hyeokgeose of Silla (57 BC–4 AD).