Kwon Young-ghil

Kwon Young-ghil
권영길
Chairman of the Democratic Labor Party
In office
30 Jan 2000 – June 2004
Preceded by Party Established
Succeeded by Kim Hae-kyung
Member of the National Assembly
In office
30 May 2004 – 29 May 2012
Preceded by Lee Ju-yeong
Succeeded by Kang Gi-yun
Constituency Seongsan District (Changwon)
Personal details
Born (1941-11-05) 5 November 1941
Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan
Political party Justice Party
Other political
affiliations		 People's Victory 21 (1997-2000)
Democratic Labor Party (2000–11)
Unified Progressive Party (2011–12)
Spouse(s) Kang Jie-yeun
Alma mater Seoul National University
Korean name
Hangul 권영길
Hanja 權永吉
Revised Romanization Gweon Yeonggil
McCune–Reischauer Kwŏn Yŏnggil

Kwon Young-ghil (Hangul: 권영길; born November 5, 1941, in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan) is a South Korean politician, journalist, human rights activist, and workers' rights activist. He was a founding member of the People's Victory 21 and Democratic Labour Party.

Life

Kwon was born in Japan, before returning to Korea. His father Kwon Wu-hyun(권우현) was a member of left-wing nationalists movements. In Kwon's early years worked at Daehan Ilbo (대한일보, 大韓日報) and Seoul Shinmun as a journalist and newsman. From 1980 to 1987, he was a Seoul Shinmun correspondent in Paris, France.

He has a Bachelor's degree in sericulture from Seoul National University (1969). Before turning to politics, he led several labour organizations including Korean Federation of Press Unions and Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.[1] In 1996 and 1997 he was Chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU, 전국민주노동조합총연맹; 全國民主勞動組合總聯盟).

He was the President of left-wing Democratic Labour Party, and was a member of the 17th and 18th National Assembly. Kwon is a Roman Catholic.[1] In 2000 to 2004 he was the head of the Democratic Labour Party. He was the party's presidential nominee in the 2002 and 2007 presidential election. After losing his bid for the governorship of the South Gyeongsang Province in 2012, and in the midst of the political scandal in the broader progressive movement in South Korea, Kwon declared his intention to retire from the frontline party politics.

Since 2013, Kwon has been a president of "Kwon Young-gil and a Better Livelihood" (권영길과 나아지는 살림살이), a think-tank that promotes and supports various progressive causes. Kwon urged people to vote for the Justice Party in the 2016 South Korean legislative election, and actively supported Sim Sang-jung's candidacy in the 2017 South Korean presidential election.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Kwon Young-ghil


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