Rep. Yoo Seong-min is an economist, four-term lawmaker and one of the earliest advocates of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system, but he is best known as the chief secretary-turned-chief enemy of President Park Geun-hye.
Presidential hopeful Rep. Yoo Seong-min of the conservative splinter Bareun Party (Lee Sang-sub/The Korea Herald)
The relationship between the conservative president and Yoo dates back to the mid-2000s when he first started out in politics.
Despite his relative lack of experience in partisan affairs, Yoo was handpicked in 2005 by Park, who was chief of what was then the Grand National Party, now the ruling Liberty Korea Party, to be her chief secretary. He was considered then to be among the most trusted few within Park’s intensely private inner circle. Yoo was also a key member of Park’s camp in the 2012 presidential election.
But their relationship soured soon after the president began her term as the state head, when Yoo started to criticize her for her handling of government affairs in a private and undemocratic manner.
Angered by the criticism, the president labeled him a “betrayer” and did everything to stop him from running in the 2016 general election on her party’s ticket.
Yoo defected from the ruling party, stood for election as an independent and again won his parliamentary seat.
“I don’t think I have ever betrayed the people. Speaking out against the president on behalf of the people is not a betrayal. I didn’t help her to seek my own interests. I did it for the public. I think this is what a public official should do,” Yoo told The Korea Herald.
President Park, embroiled in one of the country’s worse political scandals, was impeached by lawmakers late last year. The Constitutional Court is to rule soon on whether the president should be removed from office.
After Park’s scandal, Yoo joined hands with Park opponents in the Liberty Korea Party, then the Saenuri Party, to found their own Bareun Party.
Born in the southern city of Daegu in 1958, Rep. Yoo majored in economics at Seoul National University, one of the nation’s top schools, and earned a master’s degree in economics from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1987.
He worked as a researcher at the Korea Development Institute, a state-run think tank in Seoul.
Yoo first set foot in politics in 2000, taking the chief role of a think tank of the Grand National Party. He aided Lee Hoi-chang, who competed in the presidential election in 2002 but lost to the liberal camp’s Roh Moon-hyun.
He officially was elected by proportional representation in 2005 and became part of the 17th parliament. He has since been elected three more times to represent Daegu.
As a politician, Yoo is considered as a moderate conservative, with a traditional rightist approach to defense and security issues and a more centrist stance on welfare and economic reform agendas.
By Yeo Jun-suk (
jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com) and Jo He-rim (
herim@heraldcorp.com)