Cho Kwang-han (; born 1 February 1958) is a South Korean politician serving as Mayor of

Namyangju Namyangju () is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. To the east is Gapyeong County, to the west is Guri City, and to the north is Pocheon City. Namyangju-si was originally a southern part of Yangju-gun, but was separated into Namyangju-gu ...

Gyeonggi Province Gyeonggi-do (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Its name, ''Gyeonggi'', means "京 (the capital) and 畿 (the surrounding area)". Thus, ''Gyeonggi-do'' can be translated as "Seoul and the surrounding areas of Seoul". Seoul, the na ...

from 2018.

Previous political career

He was previously an administrator at President

Kim Dae-jung Kim Dae-jung (; ; 6 January 192418 August 2009), was a South Korean politician and activist who served as the eighth president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003. He was a 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for his work for democracy and human ...

Blue House Cheong Wa Dae ( ko, 청와대; Hanja: ; ), also known as the Blue House, is a public park that formerly served as the executive office and official residence of the president of South Korea from 1948 to 2022. It is located in the Jongno distr ...

. He then worked for Kim's successor

Roh Moo-hyun Roh Moo-hyun (; ; 1 September 1946 – 23 May 2009) was a South Korean politician and lawyer who served as the ninth president of South Korea between 2003 and 2008. Roh's pre-presidential political career was focused on human rights advocacy for ...

. He was responsible for recruiting

Jagalchi Market Jagalchi Fish Market is a fish market in the neighborhood of Nampo-dong in Jung-gu, and Chungmu-dong, Seo-gu, Busan, South Korea. The market is located on the edge of Nampo Port (남포항), Busan. It is considered to be the largest fish marke ...

worker for televised speech in support of then-presidential candidate Roh which hit unusually high 12.4% viewer ratings. For this he was appointed by then-president Roh as his secretary for public relations and later vice spokesperson. In 2012 general election, he unsuccessfully ran for Seoul's constituency under the slogan "I want to make

Ahn Cheol-soo Ahn Cheol-soo ( ; born 26 February 1962) is a South Korean politician, medical doctor, businessperson, and software entrepreneur. He currently serves as a member of the National Assembly as part of the conservative People Power Party. Pri ...

the president" but as an independent candidate to benchmark Ahn's "new politics campaign" as opposed to two-party system.

Mayor of Namyangju

In 2018 election, Cho became the first Democratic politician to become the Mayor of

, which was taken by main opposition party, PPP, for 16 years, defeating former deputy governor of Gyeonggi Province. He earned the party nomination defeating the former deputy mayor of the city. In October 2018, Cho launched the task force dedicated to eradicating businesses illegally selling extremely overpriced food and charging for bench usages at illegally installed restaurants around the major lakes in the city. In July 2019 the project was completed allowing citizens to enjoy cleaner lakes freely becoming the first in such project in the country. A month later Gyeonggi Province Governor

Lee Jae-myung Lee Jae-myung (; born 22 December 1964) is a South Korean politician serving as a member of the National Assembly and the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea. Lee was the nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2022 South Korean presidenti ...

launched similar projects.

Education and Academia

Cho holds a bachelor's degree in Chinese language from

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (abbreviated as HUFS; Korean: 한국외국어대학교) is a private research university based in Seoul, in South Korea. HUFS consistently ranks as one of the best universities in South Korea. The university ...

. He previously served as a visiting scholar at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

and an endowed chair professor at Kunjang University College.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cho, Kwang-han Living people Minjoo Party of Korea politicians 1958 births Hankuk University of Foreign Studies alumni People from Gunsan Mayors of places in South Korea Namyangju