Yoo Seong-min (; born 7 January 1958), also known as Yoo Seung-min, is a South Korean

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

. Yoo is a former 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 repr ...

and was the

Bareun Party The Bareun Party () was a conservative political party in South Korea, announced on 27 December 2016 with the defection of 29 anti-Park Saenuri Party lawmakers. It was known as the Conservative New Party for Reform until 8 January 2017. Hist ...

's presidential nominee in the

2017 South Korean presidential election An early presidential election was held in South Korea on 9 May 2017. The elections were conducted in a single round, on a first-past-the-post basis. Originally scheduled for 20 December 2017, the election was pushed forward following the imp ...

. He is the son of late

Daegu Daegu (; ), formerly spelled Taegu and officially Daegu Metropolitan City (), is a city in southeastern South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; the fourth-largest List of provincial-level ci ...

court chief, attorney and Member of Parliament, Yoo Soo-ho for Junggu of Daegu.

Early life

Yoo was born in

, and was the youngest child. His father was a farmer, but then became a judge and had been in politics for 8 years between 1985 and 1993. Yoo obtained his B.A. in Economics from

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the SKY (universities), SKY universities and a part of the Flagship Korean National Universities. The university's main c ...

in 1982, and his Ph.D. in Economics from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

in 1987. His focus was in

industrial organization In economics, industrial organization is a field that builds on the theory of the firm by examining the structure of (and, therefore, the boundaries between) firms and markets. Industrial organization adds real-world complications to the per ...

with a minor in economic theory and

mathematical economics Mathematical economics is the application of Mathematics, mathematical methods to represent theories and analyze problems in economics. Often, these Applied mathematics#Economics, applied methods are beyond simple geometry, and may include diff ...

econometrics Econometrics is an application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships. M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics", '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 8 p. 8 ...

. Yoo's Ph.D. dissertation is titled "Entry Into a Foreign Market: Theory and Evidence" and was supervised under

Rachel McCulloch Rachel McCulloch (June, 1942 - June 18, 2016) was an economist and the Rosen Family Professor of International Finance in the Department of Economics and International Business School at Brandeis University. She was a leading figure in the fiel ...

. After graduation Yoo worked as an economist at the

Korea Development Institute The Korea Development Institute (KDI; ) is a Korean government agency A government agency or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government (bureaucracy) that is ...

(KDI) from 1987 to 2000. He then worked as President of the Youido Institute, a think-tank for then Hannara (now Liberty Korea) Party from 2000 to 2003.

Hannara/Saenuri Party

Early political career

He was first elected as member of the National Assembly in 2004 as a member of the conservative Hannara Party as part of the proportional representation ticket. Yoo also served as Chief of Staff to future President and then-lawmaker/Chairman of the Hannara Party

Park Geun-hye Park Geun-hye (; ; born 2 February 1952) is a South Korean politician who served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 until Impeachment of Park Geun-hye, she was removed from office in 2017. Park was the first and to date only woman ...

in 2005. He was considered her close aide. He went onto be elected three more times representing parts of

. Yoo was the floor leader for the

Saenuri Party The Liberty Korea Party () was a conservative political party in South Korea that was described variously as right-wing, right-wing populist, or far-right. Until February 2017, it was known as the Saenuri Party (), and before that as the Hanna ...

(renamed from Hannara) in the

, resigning from the position in July 2015.

Anti-Park faction

Yoo and Park Geun-hye reportedly grew apart following Park's loss in the presidential nomination process to

Lee Myung-bak Lee Myung-bak (; born 19 December 1941), often referred to by his initials MB, is a South Korean businessman and politician who served as the tenth president of South Korea from 2008 to 2013. Before his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engi ...

in the primary of the

2007 presidential election This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto list of sovereign states, sovereign states and their list of dependent territories, dependent territories. Referendums are included ...

. Following greater separation from Park in 2007, as well as his open critical comments of President Park's policies such as opposing the President's promise to expand welfare without increasing taxes, Yoo was deselected from his party's nomination process in for the 2016 general election. President Park called Yoo to be engaging in a "politics of betrayal." He stood as an independent in the 2016 election and managed to win with nearly three quarters of the vote. He stated after the election in interview that he would return to the Saenuri Party and did so. Yoo was a notable member of the party for his previously close support for Park Geun-hye but later split from the pro-Park faction of the party. This contributed to his eventually founding of the splinter conservative party Bareun Party during President Park's political scandal.

Bareun Party

Yoo went onto help form, and joined, the political group

New Conservative Party for Reform The Bareun Party () was a conservative political party in South Korea, announced on 27 December 2016 with the defection of 29 anti-Park Saenuri Party lawmakers. It was known as the Conservative New Party for Reform until 8 January 2017. Histo ...

(later permanently renamed the

) during the

2016 South Korean political scandal The 2016 South Korean political scandal, often called Park Geun-hye–Choi Soon-sil Gate in South Korea (), was a scandal that emerged around October 2016 in relation to the unusual access that Choi Soon-sil, the daughter of shaman-esque cult le ...

. Bareun Party had enough defectors to become the fourth largest party in the National Assembly, with Yoo subsequently presented as "Candidate #4" in the 2017 presidential election.

2017 presidential campaign

Party nomination

Yoo had run for the

. Yoo faced a primary challenge against

Nam Kyung-pil Nam Kyung-pil (; born 20 January 1965) is a South Korean politician who served as the 34th governor of Gyeonggi Province from 2014 to 2018. Before his election, he had been a member of the National Assembly (South Korea), National Assembly since ...

to be his party's nominee, but went onto win the presidential nomination of the Bareun Party on March 28, 2017.

Campaign platform

His campaign platform has been conservative on foreign policy (안보는 보수 - "maintaining national security") while calling for reforms on the South Korean economy (경제는 개혁 - "reforming the economy"). Yoo emphasizes "warm conservatism," which calls for reforms in the economy to provide what he brands himself to be true conservatism. This is in contrast to pro-

faction in Korean conservative policies, which was the faction the Bareun Party split itself from and is currently known as the

Liberty Korea Party The Liberty Korea Party () was a conservative political party in South Korea that was described variously as right-wing, right-wing populist, or far-right. Until February 2017, it was known as the Saenuri Party (), and before that as the Hann ...

Defection of Bareun Party members

About a week prior to the presidential election, 13 members of the Bareun party announced they would be defecting back to the Liberty Korea Party reasoning they should back one conservative candidate in the five-candidate field. One lawmaker,

Hwang Young-cheul Hwang Young-cheul (, born 13 July 1965) is a politician of South Korea and currently one of the member of parliament of Hongcheon County, Cheorwon County, Hwacheon County, Yanggu County, Gangwon, Yanggu County and Inje County. Biography Born ...

, reversed his decision the next day. The result of this defection helped boost Yoo's polling numbers.

Results

Yoo finished fourth in the election, with his best results in his home area of

Personal life

He has an elder brother and an elder sister. He and his wife have two adult children, a son (born 1982) and a daughter (born 1994).

Political philosophy

He is considered one of the leading politicians who advocate

moderate conservative Moderate conservatism is a politically moderate version of conservatism that is less demanding than classical conservatism, and can be divided into several subtypes, such as liberal conservatism. The term is principally used in countries where ...

factors. In a lecture at

Sungkyunkwan University Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU or ''Seongdae'', ) is a private research university with campuses in Seoul and Suwon, South Korea. The institution traces its origins to the historic Sungkyunkwan founded in 1398 in central Seoul.republicanism Republicanism is a political ideology that encompasses a range of ideas from civic virtue, political participation, harms of corruption, positives of mixed constitution, rule of law, and others. Historically, it emphasizes the idea of self ...

, Yoo defined it as "a political order in which citizens enjoy freedom and practice civil virtue without subjugation to other citizens within the control of the law that guarantees public good." It also stressed aspects of public interests that the state and its citizens should pursue, saying that "the most important value in the republic is justice."

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yoo, Seong-min 1958 births Living people Seoul National University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni Members of the National Assembly (South Korea) Liberty Korea Party politicians Bareun Party politicians Conservatism in South Korea People from Daegu Gangneung Yoo clan South Korean Buddhists