Na Kyung-won

Na Kyung-won (나경원, born 6 December 1963) is a South Korean judge-turned-politician. She is a member of the conservative United Future Party, which is the main opposition party, formerly called the Liberty Korea Party, Grand National Party and Saenuri Party. She is a four-term lawmaker and the first female floor leader of the Liberty Korea Party, a post she held from December 2018 to December 2019.[1]

In this Korean name, the family name is Na.
Na Kyung-won
나경원
Member of the National Assembly
In office
31 July 2014 – 29 May 2020
Preceded byChung Mong-joon
Succeeded byLee Soo-jin
ConstituencySeoul Dongjak B
In office
30 May 2008 – 28 September 2011
Preceded byPark Seong-beom
Succeeded byJeong Ho-jun
ConstituencySeoul Jung
In office
30 May 2004 – 29 May 2008
ConstituencyProportional representation
Personal details
Born (1963-12-06) 6 December 1963
Seoul, South Korea
NationalityKorean
Political partyUnited Future
Korean name
Hangul
Hanja
Revised RomanizationNa Gyeongwon
McCune–ReischauerRa Kyŏngwŏn

In January 2021, Na declared her candidacy to be mayor of Seoul.[2][3]

Early life and education

Na was born on December 6, 1963 in Seoul, South Korea. She graduated from Seoul National University with a bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. in law.[4]

Career

In 1995, Na became a judge for administrative courts of South Korea.[4] She started her political career as a special aide for women's affairs to Lee Hoi-chang for the 2002 presidential election.[5][6] She was one of two candidates of the October 2011 Seoul mayoral by-election after Oh Se-hoon resigned his position as mayor, but lost the election to Park Won-soon.[7]

Na did not run in the 2012 legislative election due to allegations that her husband Kim Jae-ho was involved in a clandestine deal with a prosecutor from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.[8] She subsequently ran as a candidate for Dongjak B in a July 2014 by-election, and beat the Justice Party's Roh Hoe-chan by 929 votes.[9]

Outside of politics, Na began working in sports in 2005. She became the president of Special Olympics Korea in 2005 and the Korean Wheelchair Rugby Association in 2006. In 2009, Na was selected to the Korean Paralympic Committee and elected vice president of the KPC in 2013. Also in 2013, Na was named onto the International Paralympic Committee[4] and reelected in 2017.[10]

In December 2018, Na was elected parliamentary floor leader of the main opposition party.,[1] the first woman in the country to hold this position.[11] In February 2019, she warned that if the US could not get North Korea to denuclearize, Seoul would probably order more nuclear weaponry to level up to its northern counterpart.[12]

She lost her Dongjak B seat to Lee Soo-jin in the 2020 legislative election.

Controversies

On 15 April 2019, during a protest, progressive college students occupied the office of Na Kyung-won.[13]

In September 2019, it was reported by local media that Na's son had allegedly received preferential treatment while in high school after he was listed as the first author in a paper's research summary. The paper was subsequently presented at a medical engineering conference at Seoul National University. Na stated that she finds the allegations "regrettable" and that her son "conducted the experiments himself and wrote about it."[14]

Personal life

Na Kyung-won is married to judge Kim Jae-ho and they have a son and a daughter, who has Down syndrome.[15]

References
  1. Jo He-rim (11 December 2018). "[Newsmaker] Na Kyung-won elected main opposition party floor leader".
  2. "Former PPP Floor Leader Na Kyung-won Unveils Bid for Seoul Mayor". KBS WORLD Radio. September 5, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  3. The Korea Herald (January 13, 2021). "Former opposition floor leader runs for Seoul mayor". The Korea Herald. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  4. "Kyung-won Na" (PDF). International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  5. Lee, Jeong-mi (2011-10-11). '아메리카의 전여옥' 페일린, 나경원 후보 만난다. 민중의소리 (in Korean). Retrieved 2011-10-13.
  6. Lee, Tae-hoon (September 23, 2011). "Na joins mayoral race". The Korea Times. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  7. Ahn, Christine (January 6, 2012). "A Korean Spring?". Eurasia Review. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  8. Song, Sang-ho (2012-03-08). "Saenuri Party's Na not to run in April elections". Korean Herald. Retrieved 2012-03-08.
  9. Kang, Jin-kyu (2014-07-31). "Saenuri achieving landslide victory". Joongang Daily. Retrieved 2014-07-31.
  10. Ji-youn, Kwon (17 March 2017). "Na elected to Int'l Paralympic Committee board". Korean Times. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  11. "LKP elects Na Kyung-won as its first female floor leader". Koreanjoongangdaily.joins.com. 12 December 2018.
  12. Youkyung Lee (1 February 2019). "South Korea Opposition Leader Sees Danger in Weak Nukes Deal". Bloomberg.com.
  13. "Police seek arrest of 2 of the 22 protesters who forcibly occupied". Rokdrop.net. 15 April 2019.
  14. "South Korea's 'privileged' politicians scrutinized after Moon aide appointment". upi.com. 11 September 2019.
  15. "[Pick] "My daughter has fallen five times ..." Na Kyung-won, the reason for two consecutive days". Tellerreport.com. 19 April 2019.
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