Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon stepped into politics last October after beating his ruling party rival Na Kyung-won in a by-election. He is the first mayor of the capital from civil society without a political affiliation.

His triumph drew keen attention from political circles as it underscored the public disenchantment with the political establishment, which critics argue has been mired in wasteful partisan disputes at the expense of the public.

The former human rights lawyer is well-known for his longtime dedication to combating corruption in society and a variety of charitable campaigns.

In 1994, he co-founded the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, one of the country’s most influential advocacy groups, and led a campaign against corruption in politics, business and other sectors of society.

Park then established the Beautiful Foundation in 2000. It is a community foundation that runs the Beautiful Store charity shops all over the nation. He had also spearheaded fundraising efforts for his charity and civil society activities, developing a wide network of donors from local conglomerates and other sectors of society.

He won the 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award for “his principled activism fostering social justice, fair business practices, clean government and a generous spirit in South Korea’s young democracy.”

Park is one of the most Internet-savvy politicians in Korea. He has more than 540,000 Twitter followers and 88,000 Facebook friends on his account.

The social network services are a crucial tool for him to connect with citizens.

He received more than 100,000 tweets between January and early August, according to his office.

Around 2,400 of the tweets were suggestions from the citizens and 94 percent of them have been dealt with.

Park was born in Changnyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, in March 1956.

Park initially enrolled in the department of social science at Seoul National University, but was expelled from the school after being arrested for participating in a student-led democracy movement in 1975.

Park graduated from the history department at Dankook University in 1979. He passed the national bar exam in 1980. He earned a diploma in international law from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences in 1992.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)