Choi Gyung-hwan (, born 28 July 1959) is a South Korean activist and politician. He is the

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 represen ...

for

Gwangju Gwangju (; ), formerly romanized as Kwangju, is South Korea's list of cities in South Korea, sixth-largest metropolis. It is a designated Special cities of South Korea, metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home ...

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

2nd constituency since 2016 and the President of the

New Alternatives The New Alternatives Party () was a South Korean political party founded in 2020. History The New Alternatives Party was originally organised by the conservative dissidents of the Party for Democracy and Peace (PDP) on 16 July 2019, as the ...

since 2020. Prior to these careers, he was the Presidential Secretary and the last aide for the ex-

President of the Republic The President of the Republic is a title used for heads of state and/or heads of government in countries having republican form of government. Designation In most cases the president of a republic is elected, either: * by direct universal s ...

Kim Dae-jung Kim Dae-jung (, ; 6 January 192418 August 2009) was a South Korean politician, activist and statesman who served as the eighth president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003. Kim entered politics as a member of the new wing of the Democratic Pa ...

Career

During the 1980s, Choi was once jailed for being involved in Hakrim incident and Youth Union for Pro-democracy Movement (aka Minchŏngryŏn) incident, in which the former was acquitted in 2015. He later served as the Presidential Secretary for

, as well as his aide. He is widely known as his last aide by serving the position till the death of the ex-President in 2009. Following the death of Kim, Choi has been working at Kim Dae-jung Peace Centre. Choi was brought into the

Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist, Ulster loyalism, loyalist, British nationalist and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who ...

and launched his bid for

2nd constituency in 2012, but lost to Lim Nae-hyun during the

preselection Preselection is the process by which a candidate is selected, usually by a political party, to contest an election for political office. It is also referred to as candidate selection. It is a fundamental function of political parties. The presel ...

. In 2016, he joined the People's Party (PP) and was elected as the MP. He proposed a bill named Special Act on the Investigation of Facts that later passed the parliamentary votes. Choi once helped the party's ex-President

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

, but due to the disagreement of Ahn's decision to merge with 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 ...

, he quitted and joined the

Party for Democracy and Peace The Party for Democracy and Peace (, sometimes translated as the Democratic Peace Party) was a liberal political party in South Korea. The name "Democratic Peace Party" is known to have been named by Lee Sang-don (), a conservative liberal in ...

(PDP) in 2018. In August, he launched his bid for the party's presidency but came behind of

Chung Dong-young Chung Dong-young (; born 27 July 1953) is a South Korean politician who was the nominee of the United New Democratic Party in the 2007 South Korean presidential election. In June 2025, Chung was nominated to be South Korea's unification minist ...

and

Yu Sung-yup Yu Sung-yup (, born 25 January 1960) is a South Korean politician who was the Member of the National Assembly for Jeongeup from 2008 (also for Gochang from 2016) to 2020. He was also the co-presidents of the Minsaeng Party, serving with Park ...

, made him as one of the Vice Presidents. In 2019, Choi and the party's dissidents left PDP and formed the

. On 12 January 2020, he was elected as the newly-formed party's president.

Trivia

Choi Gyung-hwan has the same name with the former Deputy Prime Minister Choi Kyoung-hwan, though both are not related. Nevertheless, the name brought confusions, especially after the latter was involved in controversies. As an example, on 9 December 2016, when the former Deputy Prime Minister Choi was the only MP who abstained from the impeachment vote against the President

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 ...

, the former Presidential Secretary Choi was the one who received many protest messages.

Books

* '' The Leadership of Kim Dae-jung'' (15 December 2010)

Election results

General elections

References

External links

Choi Gyung-hwan
on

Blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

Choi Gyung-hwan
on

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Choi Gyung-hwan
on

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Choi, Gyung-hwan 1959 births Living people South Korean politicians