Byun Hee-jae (; born 22 April 1974) is a South Korean conservative political commentator. He is also one of the founder of conservative weekly newspaper name Mediawatch.

Life

He was born in Seoul in 1974. He studied in the Aesthetics Department at

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 ...

. Although in 1999 he joined the movement against the largest conservative newspaper in South Korea,

The Chosun Ilbo ''The Chosun Ilbo'' (, ), also known as ''The Chosun Daily,'' is a Korean-language newspaper of record for South Korea and among the oldest active newspapers in the country. With a daily circulation of more than 1,800,000, ''The'' ''Chosun Ilbo ...

, he later became one of the most notable conservative political commentators in South Korea.

Defending Park Geun-hye

After the

Impeachment of Park Geun-hye On 9 December 2016, Park Geun-hye, the president of South Korea, was impeached as the culmination of a political scandal involving interventions to the presidency from her aide, Choi Soon-sil. 234 members of the 300-member National Assembly v ...

, Byun launched a campaign defending her. He claimed she was innocent and that the charges against her were fabricated accusations levied by the prosecution for political motives.

After 2022

Unlike most of conservative political activist Byun view president

Yoon Suk Yeol Yoon Suk Yeol (; born 18 December 1960) is a South Korean politician and former prosecutor who served as the 13th president of South Korea from 2022 until Impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol, he was removed from office in 2025. The shortest-serving ...

very critically. Because Yoon was one of the main prosecutor that accused Park Geun-hye. He regularly joins the protest against the president and this make him popular again among the anti-government media and public. Byun runs for

2024 South Korean legislative election Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 10 April 2024. All 300 members of the National Assembly (South Korea), National Assembly were elected, 254 from first-past-the-post South Korean Legislature Constituencies, constituencies and 46 ...

as a candidate of Pine Tree Party founded by

Song Young-gil Song Young-gil (; born 21 March 1963) is a South Korean politician who served as the Leader of the centre- liberal Democratic Party from 2 May 2021 until 10 March 2022. He was Member of the National Assembly, as well as the Chairman of the For ...

, the former

mayor of Incheon The Mayor of Incheon () is the head of the local government of Incheon who is elected to a four-year term. List of mayors Appointed mayors (before 1995) From 1945 to 1995, the Mayor of Incheon was appointed by the President of South Korea, P ...

and former candidate of mayor of seoul in 2022. In 2024 October 12nd he declared political asylum in United States of America. It was during his honeymoon in US.

Views

Taiwan

In 2019 Byun invited

Annette Lu Lu Hsiu-lien (; born 7 June 1944), also known by her English name Annette, is a Taiwanese politician and lawyer. A feminist active in the tangwai movement, she joined the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 1990, and was elected to the Legis ...

, the former Vice President of the Republic of China to South Korea for advocating normalization of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Taiwan.

Impeachment of Park

In the interview with Japan Forward, the English newspaper published by ''

Sankei Shimbun The , name short for , is a daily national newspaper in Japan published by the Sankei Shimbun Co., Ltd, ranking amongst the top five most circulated newspapers in Japan. Together with its English-language paper ''Japan Forward'', the ''Sankei ...

,'' byun argued he has reasonable grounds to believe that prosecutors at that time Yoon and

Han Dong-hoon Han Dong-hoon (; born 9 April 1973) is a South Korean politician and prosecutor who served as the leader of the People Power Party from July to December 2024 and as the 69th minister of justice from May 2022 to December 2023 under the cabine ...

deeply involved in fabricating evidence to remove

Park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...