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Kim Chong in

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Preceded by
  
Moon Jae-in

President
  
Roh Tae-woo

Spouse
  
Kim Mi-kyung (m. 1974)

Parents
  
Kim Jae-yeol, Lee Phil-gi

Succeeded by
  
Choo Mi-ae

Preceded by
  
Moon Tae-joon

Party
  
Minjoo Party of Korea

Kim Chong-in httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons66

Constituency
  
Proportional representation

Constituency
  
Proportional representation

Education
  
University of Münster, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

Siblings
  
Kim Chong-eun, Kim Chong-hyun

Similar
  
Moon Jae‑in, Ahn Cheol‑soo, Kim Han‑gil, Kim Moo‑sung, Sim Sang‑jung

Kim Chong-in (Hangul: 김종인; Hanja: 金鍾仁, born July 7, 1940) is a South Korean economist and politician. He has been interim chairman of the Minjoo Party of Korea since January 2016, and a member-elect of the National Assembly on the party's proportional list since the April 2016 parliamentary election. He was previously a member of the Assembly from 1981 to 1988, 1992 to 1994, and 2004 to 2008, each time elected by party list. He served as Minister of Health and Social Affairs under President Roh Tae-woo from 1989 to 1990.

Kim spent his early political career in the Democratic Justice Party of President Chun Doo-hwan, and followed the party when it merged with two other conservative parties to form the Democratic Liberal Party in 1990. He remained in the party's successors, becoming an assemblyman for the Grand National Party in 2004 and subsequently a campaign and economic advisor to President Park Geun-hye. He served as chairman of the Saenuri Party's Special Committee to Promote People's Happiness during Park's campaign, promoting economic democratization and the party's business-friendly image. He was later marginalized by Park, and separated from the president and her economic cabinet, for reasons which are in dispute. In January 2015, he criticized Park for "not being able to recognize a problem", and commented on his own plans that he had "lost trust in people": "I do not have much desire to talk".

After stepping down as Park's advisor, Kim subsequently joined the liberal opposition Democratic Party. Following the resignation of Moon Jae-in as party leader in January 2016, he was appointed chairman of the Emergency Planning Commission of the Democratic Party's successor, the Minjoo Party of Korea, with the goal of preparing for the upcoming legislative election. As party leader, Kim aimed to unify the party by diminishing the influence of entrenched factions. He targeted leading members of the pro–Roh Moo-hyun faction of the party, including Lee Hae-chan, whom he deselected. Kim faced calls to resign over the nominations process, but decided to stay on as leader, pledging to continue reforming the party. Despite losing most of the seats in its traditional stronghold of Honam to the new People's Party, the party gained a favorable result in the elections under his leadership, defeating the ruling Saenuri Party and winning a plurality of seats in the Assembly.

Kim consolidated his control over the Minjoo Party with the favorable 2016 election result. A week after the election, he announced that the party would reorient from welfare advocacy to support for economic growth and corporate reform, and dropped the party's prior policy of opposition to for-profit hospitals.

Before entering politics, Kim studied German language at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies as an undergradate, and obtained a doctorate in economics at the University of Münster in Germany in 1972. His dissertation at Münster was titled "Possibilities and Limits of Social Policy in the Present Social–Economic Situation in the Republic of Korea". He was professor of Sogang University, and board chairman of KB Kookmin Bank, the largest private bank of Korea.

References

Kim Chong-in Wikipedia