Park Yong-jin (; born 17 April 1971) is a South Korean labor activist and politician in the liberal

Minjoo Party of Korea The Democratic Party of Korea (DPK; ), formerly known as the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), is a liberal political party in South Korea. Controlling the unicameral National Assembly as of 2022, the DPK is regarded as one of two maj ...

. He was elected member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

for Gangbuk,

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

, in the April 2016 parliamentary elections. Park was a founding member of the left-wing Democratic Labor Party, standing unsuccessfully as a parliamentary candidate in the Gyeongbuk B constituency in 2000 and serving as the party's spokesman from 2004. He stayed with the DLP from its establishment in 2000 until 2008, when the party's pro–labor rights People's Democracy faction parted ways with the nationalist National Liberty faction. Park followed the PD group to the splinter New Progressive Party. He stood for the Assembly again as an NPP candidate in Gangbuk B in the parliamentary election that year, but was defeated a second time, garnering 11.8 percent of the vote. In 2012, Park changed his affiliation again to the main liberal

Democratic United Party The Democratic Party (; DP), formerly the Democratic United Party (; DUP) until 2013, was a liberal political party in South Korea, and for the duration of its existence the country's main opposition force. On 15 December 2011, the Democratic ...

. He became head of public relations for the Democratic Party—as the DUP renamed itself—in 2014, but resigned following the 2014 by-elections, 30 days after assuming the office. He won Gangbuk B for the Minjoo Party, the Democratic Party's successor, in the 2016 elections. He will enter the National Assembly on 30 May 2016. A labor advocate, Park has been imprisoned multiple times for his activism. He spent several months in prison after taking part in a

sympathy strike Solidarity action (also known as secondary action, a secondary boycott, a solidarity strike, or a sympathy strike) is industrial action by a trade union in support of a strike initiated by workers in a separate corporation, but often the same en ...

with railway workers in 1994, and was imprisoned again after participating in protests against employee cutbacks at

Daewoo Daewoo ( ; Hangul: , Hanja: , ; literally "great universe" and a portmanteau of "dae" meaning great, and the given name of founder and chairman Kim Woo-choong) also known as the Daewoo Group, was a major South Korean chaebol (type of conglomerat ...

in 2001. He was eventually released in April 2003 after over two years in detention. Born in

Jangsu County Jangsu County (''Jangsu-gun'') is a county in North Jeolla Province, South Korea. It is well known for Jangsu-Galbi. Climate Twin towns – sister cities Jangsu is twinned with: * Anyang, South Korea (1996) * Hapcheon, South Korea (1999) ...

North Jeolla North Jeolla Province (; ''Jeollabuk-do''), also known as Jeonbuk, is a province of South Korea. North Jeolla has a population of 1,869,711 (2015) and has a geographic area of 8,067 km2 (3,115 sq mi) located in the Honam region in the southwest ...

, Park studied sociology at

Sungkyunkwan University Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU or simply ''Seongdae'', Hangul: 성균관대학교; Hanja: 成均館大學校) is a private comprehensive research university in South Korea. The institution traces its origins to the historic Sungkyunkwan, founde ...

. Park stood as a candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential primary candidate selection for the 2022 presidential election. He lost the election to

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 ...

who became the party's candidate for the 2022 presidential election.

References

1971 births Democratic Labor Party (South Korea) politicians Living people Liberalism in South Korea Members of the National Assembly (South Korea) Democratic Party of Korea politicians New Progressive Party (South Korea) politicians People from Jangsu County Sungkyunkwan University alumni {{SouthKorea-politician-stub