Lee Jung-hee (; born December 22, 1969) is a South Korean politician, lawyer and activist. 18th member of the

National Assembly of South Korea The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, often shortened to the National Assembly in domestic English-language media, is the unicameral national legislature of South Korea. Elections to the National Assembly are held every four years. T ...

. She was one of the candidates for the

2012 presidential election This national electoral calendar for 2012 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2012 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *3–4 January ...

Biography

Early years

Lee was born in

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 of ...

in 1969. A graduate of Somun Women's High School and Seoul National University, she joined the student movement in 1992. During her early years, she was a human rights, workers' rights, and women's rights activist.

Political activities

In 2007 she joined the Democratic Labor Party. She was elected as a 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 rep ...

in 2008. In 2008 she was Vice Leader of Democratic Labor Party and next year was elected as the Democratic Labor Party's leader. In 2011, the DLP joined with other parties to form the

Unified Progressive Party The Unified Progressive Party (UPP; ko, 통합진보당, RR: ''Tonghap Jinbo-dang'', Hanja: 統合進步黨) is a banned political party in South Korea. It was founded on 5 December 2011 as a merger of the Democratic Labor Party, the People ...

(UPP). Lee Jung-hee was the UPP candidate in the

2012 South Korean presidential election Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 19 December 2012. They were the sixth presidential elections since democratization and the establishment of the Sixth Republic, and were held under a first-past-the-post system, in which there ...

. Lee admitted her entry in the race was mainly to castigate

Park Geun-hye Park Geun-hye (; ; often in English ; born 2 February 1952) is a South Korean politician who served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 to 2017, until she was impeached and convicted on related corruption charges. Park was the fi ...

, 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 Han ...

candidate, whom she called the "first lady of the dictatorial era". Although she polled less than one percent, she was invited to join the presidential debate because her party had more than five seats in the National Assembly. In the debate, she drew controversy by referring to Park's father, former president and dictator Park Chung-hee, by his Japanese name; and by referring to the government in Seoul as "the government of the South"— a phrase rarely used in South Korea but commonly used by North Korea. Her performance was thought to have damaged fellow left-wing candidate

Moon Jae-in Moon Jae-in (; ; born 24 January 1953) is a South Korean former politician, civil servant and lawyer who served as the 12th president of South Korea between 2017 and 2022. Prior to his presidency, he served as Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs an ...

's chances by association. On December 16, three days before the election, she withdrew from the contest, "in accordance with the people's hope for integrating (opposition) progressive, democratic and reform-minded forces to achieve a change of government" and warned that Park's victory would mean an "irrevocable regression of history". Park ultimately won the election; analysts suggested that Lee's attacks motivated the conservative Saenuri voters to turn out for Park. On September 2, 2013, Lee declared that she would go on

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

to protest what she called the “witch hunt” against UPP member Lee Seok-ki, whom the National Intelligence Service charged with planning armed rebellion against the South Korean government. On December 19, 2014, the

Constitutional Court of Korea The Constitutional Court of Korea () is highest constitutional court in judicial branch of South Korea, seated in Jongno, Seoul. Established under Chapter 6 of the Constitution of South Korea, the Court has ultimate jurisdiction over judic ...

dissolved the UPP, finding the party "aimed at using violent means to overthrow our free democratic system"; it was the first time the constitutional court of Korea banned a political party since 1988. Lee Jung-hee denounced the decision, saying it "opened a dark age with an authoritarian decision" and turned South Korea into a "dictatorial country". On April 8, 2020, Lee appeared on the official youtube for the

Minjung Party The Progressive Party (), known as the Minjung Party () until June 2020, is a left-wing nationalist political party in South Korea. The party was formed by the merger of the New People's Party and People's United Party on 15 October 2017. ...

and expressed support for the Minjung party in the

2020 South Korean legislative election Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 15 April 2020. All 300 members of the National Assembly were elected, 253 from first-past-the-post constituencies and 47 from proportional party lists. They were the first elections held under ...

Books

* Love and Song and sick (2010) * Future advances * Learned woman

References

External links