Park Chan-jong (politician)

Park Chan-jong (Korean: 박찬종; Hanja: 朴燦鍾; born (1939-04-19)April 19, 1939) is a politician of South Korea, and a member of the 9th, 10th, 12th, 13th, and 14th National Assembly. His art name is Udang (우당; 尤堂).

Life

He was born on April 19, 1939 in Gimhae-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do. He graduated from Gyeonggi High School in 1958 and entered the Department of Economics at Seoul National University that year. While attending school, he passed the Higher Civil Service Examination Judicial Examination, Higher Civil Service Examination Administrative Examination, and Certified Public Accountant exams. After that, he worked as a lawyer, and in 1971, he ran for office as a candidate of the Democratic Republican Party in the 8th General Election, but after losing, he opened a lawyer practice. After the National Assembly was dissolved with the October Yushin on October 17, 1972, he ran for office as a member of the Democratic Republican Party in the 1973 General Election held the following year in 1973, and was elected in second place under the changed election law to a multi-member district system. In 1976, at the age of 38, he was elected as the President of the Korean Institute of Certified Public Accountants after a close race that went into a second round of voting. As a member of the Democratic Republican Party National Assembly, he was called an opposition party member within the ruling party for opposing the establishment of the summary trial system and criticizing the hiring of the wife of the chairman of the Yushin Political Friends Association as a secretary. He was then elected in the 10th general election, but after the October 26 Incident, he led a movement to reform the party within the Republican Party, demanding the resignation or exclusion of those who had been corrupted by power and the sunflower politicians from party positions, and he was expelled from the Republican Party on April 7, 1980, while serving as a member of the National Assembly Special Committee on Constitutional Amendment.

In August 1980, Chun Doo-hwan was elected as the 11th president under the Yushin Constitution, and in October, when the 10th National Assembly was dissolved after the Fifth Republic Constitution passed a national referendum, he was included in the list of 811 people subject to political regulation in November, but was immediately lifted. He ran in the 11th National Assembly election in March 1981, but withdrew midway through the election. In 1983, he published “Shameful Story” in which he reflected on his past participation in the Yushin regime, and in 1985, ahead of the 12th National Assembly election, he participated in the founding of the New Korea Democratic Party led by Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung, and ran in Busan and was elected. As the chairman of the Human Rights Advocacy Committee of the Democratic Promotion Council and the chairman of the Human Rights Advocacy Committee of the New Democratic Party, when the Seoul American Cultural Center Occupation Incident broke out in May 1985, he took on the defense of the university students who led the occupation, including Ham Woon-kyung and Kim Min-seok, and became known as a human rights lawyer who defended student activists. In September of the same year, he was indicted by the Chun Doo-hwan regime for the 'Korea University Protest Incident' and was suspended from practicing law for three years and six months. As the chairman of the Truth Finding Committee for the Park Jong-cheol Death by Torture Incident, he took the lead in revealing that the cause of death was torture. After the June Democratic Struggle in 1987, the Reunification Democratic Party split into Kim Young-sam's Reunification Democratic Party and Kim Dae-jung's Peace Democratic Party, and when both Kims ran for president, Park Chan-jong left the Reunification Democratic Party and ran as an independent in the 1971 General Election, winning in Seocho-gu Gap. In June 1990, he joined the Democratic Party, which was founded by members of the Unification Democratic Party who opposed Kim Young-sam's three-party merger, but left the party in September 1991 in opposition to the party activities centered around President Lee Ki-taek. In February 1992, Park Chan-jong formed the Political Reform Council with political newcomers and founded the New Politics Reform Party. Park Chan-jong, who was elected as the representative supreme member of the New Politics Reform Party, ran as a candidate for Seocho-gap, Seoul in the 1992 General Election held in March 1992 and was elected. In the 1992 Presidential Election held in December 1992, he ran as a candidate for the New Politics Reform Party but came in fourth place. At this time, he developed the image of a "clean politician" by roaming the streets alone and campaigning without paying, which led to his appearance in a "non-homogenized milk" commercial. After the presidential election, Chung Ju-young left the party and merged with the remaining faction of the Unification National Party to form the New Democratic Party, which was then merged with the Liberal Democratic Union led by Kim Jong-pil and the New Democratic Party led by Kim Dong-gil in 1995.

In 1995, he left the New Democratic Party and ran as an independent in the Seoul mayoral election, leading by over 20% over the candidate Cho Soon who was in second place at the beginning of the election, but the so-called DJP alliance of Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-pil supported candidate Cho Soon, and he lost the election, coming in second.

In the 1996 general election in 1996, he joined the ruling party, the New Korea Party, and was assigned number 2 in the proportional representation, leaving his local district, but he voluntarily returned it and was assigned number 21, which was outside the winning bracket, and was unable to enter the National Assembly. During the election, he served as a co-chairman of the election campaign committee with Park Chang-dal. In various support polls conducted for prospective candidates for the 1997 presidential election held in 1997, he came in first place by a wide margin, but when it became unclear whether he would pass the primary for the ruling New Korea Party's presidential candidate due to the lack of internal organization, he criticized the closed primary rules and the financial campaigning of candidate Lee Hoi-chang, and eventually withdrew from the candidacy on the last day of the primary. Later, he expressed his intention to support candidate Lee Hoi-chang on the condition that he apologize to the public for the unfair primary election, accept candidate Lee In-je's refusal to accept the primary election results, and apologize to the public for Lee Hoi-chang's two sons' draft dodging. However, when candidate Lee Hoi-chang did not respond, he left the New Korea Party and supported candidate Lee In-je, who also left the New Korea Party and ran as a member of the People's New Party (South Korea). After that, in June 1998, he attempted to run as the People's New Party's candidate for Seoul mayor in the 2nd local elections, but did not run in order to form an alliance with the Grand National Party's Choi Byung-ryul candidate. In July, he ran in the by-election in Seoul, but lost with 8.7%, and suddenly left politics to study abroad in Japan.

Park Chan-jong returned to politics by participating in the founding of the Democratic National Party ahead of the 2000 general election, and ran in the Jung-gu and Dong-gu constituencies in Busan, but lost. In the 2004 General Election, he ran as an Independent in Seo-gu, Busan, but lost and retired from politics.

In 2007, he was imprisoned in Seoul Detention Center for debts related to election expenses for the 14th General Election, but was released after a day, and after expressing his thoughts that "I always believed that the judicial system should be reformed, but I felt the need for it more keenly," he resumed his active career as a lawyer, and took on the defense of mathematician Kim Myeong-ho in the crossbow terrorism case, Kim Kyung-joon in the BBK case, and internet commentators Park Dae-seong and Park Yeon-cha. In particular, in the Minerva case, he received public attention by leading to a not guilty verdict.

Park Chan-Jong appears on general programming and news programs and criticizes both the ruling and opposition parties. After opening 'Park Chan-jong TV' on YouTube in 2019, he showed an ambivalent stance criticizing the Liberty Korea Party, but in the latter half of the Moon Jae-in administration in 2020, amid the COVID-19 situation, he showed far-right actions in line with far-right Christian groups. Then, in 2021, he joined the People's Revolutionary Party (later renamed the Liberty Unification Party).

Career

• Korean Institute of Certified Public Accountants President
• Democratic Promotion Council Human Rights Protection Committee Chairman
• New Democratic Party Human Rights Protection Committee Chairman
• Reunification Democratic Party Policy Committee Chairman
• New Politics Reform Party President
• New Democratic Party Floor Leader
• New Korea Party Election Campaign Committee Co-Chairman
• People's New Party Election Campaign Committee Chairman
• Democratic National Party Supreme Council Member
• Attorney at Law, Ahnmin Law Firm
• Advisory Attorney at Law, Hanuri Law Firm
• Advisory Attorney at Law, Daol Law Firm
• Representative Attorney at Law, Daol Law Firm
• Attorney at Law, Ido Law Firm
• Representative Attorney at Law, Yudam Law Firm
• Sanwoo Law Firm Advisory Attorney
• 2022.12 – : Advisor to the National Solidarity of People's Power Party Responsible Party Members

Education

• Graduated from Busan Daeshin Elementary School in 1952
• Graduated from Gyeongnam Middle School in 1955
• Graduated from Gyeonggi High School in 1958
• Graduated from Seoul National University College of Commerce in 1962, Bachelor's degree in Economics
• Seoul National University Graduate School in 1975, Master's degree in Business Administration

Controversy

Remarks on Promoting Regionalism

In March 1996, Park Chan-jong, who was the former chairman of the New Korea Party election campaign committee, said at a campaign rally in Tongyeong, "If former Presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo had not been punished, the Jeolla-do protesters would have put the country in crisis. He was heavily criticized for his remarks that incited regionalism, saying, "I might have missed it".