Cho Kuk

Cho Kuk (born 6 April 1965 ) is a South Korean jurist and politician.

Cho was born in West District of Busan in 1965, as the eldest son of the ex-Director of Institute of Ungdong, Cho Byun-hyun (died in 2013), and his wife and the current Director of the institute, Park Jung-sook.

He attended Gudeok Elementary School in Busan, then moved to Seoul and studied at Daesin Middle School.

After he returned to Busan, he finished his secondary education at Hyekwang High School.

Cho earned bachelor's and master's degrees in law studies from Seoul National University, and a doctoral degree (J.S.D) from the University of California, Berkeley in the United States.

He was also a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford and University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.

Cho showed interest in politics at the end of the 1980s, while studying at university.

During this time, he was already a member of the South Korean Socialist Workers' Alliance, along with Rhyu Si-min and Eun Su-mi.

Cho was detained due to his activities, under breach of the National Security Act, and declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

Later, he criticised the National Security Act as a "barbaric law" in his book titled For the Freedom of Conscience and Ideology.

Cho used to be a lecturer in law studies at the University of Ulsan from 1992 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2000, then at Dongguk University from 2000 to 2001, and later at Seoul National University—where he had earned his bachelor's degree—from 2001 to 2004.

Since the 2000s, Cho has been involved in various activities related to human rights and democracy.

He was a member of the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, Committee of Determination of Punishment in Supreme Court, National Human Rights Commission, and the other various organisations.

Cho has never held any elected position, even though the former Democratic Party and its successor Democratic Unionist Party suggested that he run for a position as member of the National Assembly in Bundang 2nd constituency.

While at Seoul National University, he was promoted from lecturer to senior lecturer (2004–2009), then to full professor in 2009.

There were also expectations that Cho would run for Superintendent of Education in Seoul during the local elections in 2014, but he declined.

He promised a clear investigation of the 2016 South Korean political scandal.

This was welcomed by the People's Party, but also attacked by the Liberty Korea Party.

He was the Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs from 2017 to 2019 in the Moon Jae-in Cabinet.

On 11 May 2017, the day after Moon Jae-in officially assumed the office of president, Cho was appointed Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs.

He was one of several non-prosecutors appointed to the position.

He did not run for mayorship of Busan in 2018, despite public expectations.

On 31 December 2018, Cho attended the House Steering Committee of the National Assembly.

This "surprise" attendance was an issue in South Korean society, as such was not really done by former senior secretaries.

A source reported that this negatively affected the approval ratings of President Moon.

On 9 September 2019, President Moon Jae-in appointed Cho as Minister of Justice, replacing the incumbent Park Sang-ki.

In 2019, Cho Kuk was involved in a series of controversies, including allegations of corruption surrounding his family's business activities.

On 14 October, in the wake of these controversies, Cho Kuk announced his resignation.

In 2023, Cho was convicted of falsifying documents for his children's college admissions and sentenced to two years in prison.

On March 3, 2024, Cho founded the Korea Innovation Party.

Cho was replaced by Kim Joe-won on 26 July 2019.

On 9 August 2019, Cho was nominated for the position of Minister of Justice replacing Park Sang-ki, by President Moon.

He quoted General Lee Soon-shin and promised political reform.

On 9 September, Cho was officially appointed Minister of Justice.

Cho subsequently resigned on 14 October, just 35 days after taking office due to a prosecution probe into various allegations surrounding his family.

Cho is often regarded as liberal, even though he was labelled a "leftist" by several right-wing groups.

Regarding the abolition of the death penalty, he said, "I understood the national sentiment, but it should be replaced with life imprisonment."

He also mentioned that people should not argue with the criminality of abortion.

For issues related to the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), Cho announced that the government is not only for KCTU and impossible to satisfy their demands.

In his political career, Cho Kuk was embroiled in a number of scandals, including plagiarism and tax delinquencies.