Chang Jung-sook (Korean장정숙, born 17 January 1952) is a South Korean politician and the former parliamentary leader of the New Alternatives.

Chang Jung-sook
장정숙
Member of the National Assembly
In office
30 May 2016 – 29 May 2020
ConstituencyProportional
Floor Leader of the Minsaeng Party
In office
17 March 2020 – 29 May 2020
Preceded byYu Sung-yup
Personal details
Born (1952-01-17) 17 January 1952 (age 72)
Daejeon, South Korea
CitizenshipSouth Korean
Political partyMinsaeng Party
Other political
affiliations
Democratic Party (before 2011)
Democratic Unionist Party (2011-2013)
Democratic Party (2013-2014)
New Politics Alliance for Democracy (2014-2015)
National Congress (2016)
People's Party (2016-2018)
Party for Democracy and Peace (de facto; 2018-2019)
Bareunmirae (de facto; 2018-2020)
New Alternatives (de facto; 2020)
SpouseLim Pyung-yong
ChildrenLim Young-seok
Lim Eun-jung
Lim Hyun-jung
Alma materSeoul National University
Yonsei University
OccupationPolitician

Career edit

Born in Daejeon, Chang studied vocal music at Seoul National University.[1] She currently holds a master's degree in music education from Yonsei University.[1]

Chang served as a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Council from 2010 to 2014.[1] During this time, she revealed the corruption scandal of Myung-whun Chung, as well as the poor management of Sejong Centre.[2][1] Her career gave a nickname "Kwakjwee (꽉쥐)", named after her persistence that when she strongly holds a something, she does not release it (꽉 쥐면 안 놓는다; pronounced as Kwak jweemyun an nohnneunda).[1]

In 2016, she was brought into the National Congress, a minor political party formed by Chun Jung-bae.[2][1] The party was subsequently merged into the People's Party (PP),[3] in which she ran 11th in the party list. She was elected and served positions i.e. parliamentary spokeswoman and deputy parliamentary leader.

In 2018, Chang declared to quit from the PP along with the other dissidents due to the disagreement of the party's decision to merge with the Bareun Party (BP).[4] She, along with Lee Sang-don and Park Joo-hyun, was planning to join the Party for Democracy and Peace (PDP) but unable to do so as PRs are not allowed to exit from their original parties; if they do so, their parliamentary membership will be automatically revoked.[5][6] The only way was to let the PP President Ahn Cheol-soo to expel 3 of them,[5] which was rejected by him.[4] Both PP and BP were combined as the Bareunmirae Party (BMP) and since then, she still remains within the party.[7] However, the PDP allowed her to hold any kind of party offices and made her as the PDP spokeswoman.[7][6]

In 2019, Chang de facto joined the New Alternatives while remaining as a BMP member.[8] In 2020, she was appointed as the parliamentary leader of the New Alternatives.[8]

Personal life edit

Chang married Lim Pyung-yong, a conductor from Mokpo who met during the university life.[1] Both has a son (Lim Young-seok) and 2 daughters (Lim Eun-jung and Lim Hyun-jung).[1]

Election results edit

General elections edit

Year Constituency Political party Votes (%) Remarks
2016 Proportional (11th) People's 6,355,572 (26.74%) Elected
2020 Proportional (5th) Minsaeng 758,778 (2.71%) Not elected

Local elections edit

Seoul Metropolitan Council edit

Year Constituency Political party Votes (%) Remarks
2010 Proportional (5th) DP 1,790,556 (40.99%) Elected

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "[국회의원 집중분석] 장정숙...'꽉쥐` 별명 가진 성악전공자". 9 June 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  2. ^ a b "국민회의, 김영수·채수창·장정숙 등 공익제보자 3명 영입". 18 January 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  3. ^ "[속보] 안철수 국민의당-천정배 국민회의 전격 통합". 25 January 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  4. ^ a b "국민의당서 15명 집단 탈당…민주평화당으로". 5 February 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  5. ^ a b "장정숙, '제2의 김현아' 불사 ·· "절대 탈당 안 해"". 1 February 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  6. ^ a b "바른미래당 장정숙 의원, 민주평화당 대변인 활동". 13 March 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  7. ^ a b "'민주평화당 공동 대변인' 된 바른미래당 의원". 11 March 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  8. ^ a b "평화당서 나온지 5개월만에, 대안신당 출범". 13 January 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2020.

External links edit