Cho Jung-hun
조정훈
Cho in 2023
Member of the National Assembly
Assumed office
30 May 2020
ConstituencyProportional
President of Transition Korea
In office
12 May 2020 – 9 November 2023
Succeeded byParty merged with People Power
In office
23 February 2020 – 23 March 2020
Serving with Lee Won-jae
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byHong Seok-bin (acting)
Personal details
Born (1972-10-07) 7 October 1972
Seoul, South Korea
CitizenshipSouth Korean
Political partyPeople Power
Other political
affiliations		Transition Korea (2020-2023)
Democratic (2016-2020)
Platform (2020)
Alma materYonsei University
John F. Kennedy School of Government
OccupationEconomist, politician

Cho Jung-hun (Korean: 조정훈, born 7 October 1972) is a South Korean economist and politician. He is one of the co-founders of the minor liberal Transition Korea party, along with Lee Won-jae. On 9 November 2023, he merged his minor party with the conservative People Power Party.

Early life and education

Born in Seoul, Cho studied business administration at Yonsei University.[1] After qualifying for Certified Public Accountant, he earned a master's degree in international development at John F. Kennedy School of Government.[1][2][3] He passed the Young Professionals Programme of the World Bank.[1][2][3]

Career

From 2005 to 2008, Cho worked under the Technical Advisory Team of the World Bank where he worked as a part of negotiations for Kosovo independence and fiscal decentralization from Serbia.[2][4] Then from 2012 to 2014, he worked at the World Bank Palestine branch and helped a negotiation between Palestine and Israel.[2] Prior to entering politics, he worked at the World Bank Uzbekistan branch from 2014.[2][4] In Uzbekistan, he was not only managing the development work of the bank,[1][2][3] but was also consulting the economic development of the country.[2][4] After returning to his home country South Korea, he served as the Vice Chairman for Future Consensus Institute and the director of Ajou Institute of Unification.

Politics

Prior to the 2016 election, Cho was brought into the Democratic Party.[1][2][3] He applied for the Democratic list but was not officially registered.[4]

In 2020, Cho co-founded Transition Korea along with Lee Won-jae.[5] He was elected to be the party president but resigned in order to run under the Platform Party (sister satellite party to the Democratic Party) banner.[6] He ran 6th in the Platform Party list[6] and was elected. On 12 May 2020, Cho officially left the Platform Party and returned to his original party.[7]

On March 19, 2023, Cho received international attention for suggesting that Korea solve its population crisis by importing domestic workers from Southeast Asian nations and paying them half the legal minimum wage. Many domestic international commentators ridiculed Cho because his remarks landed on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the annual protest day for the rights of migrant workers carried out by the South Korean Migrant Trade Union.[8] Parliamentarian Yong Hye-in of the Basic Income Party criticized Cho's policy proposal as "racist."

In September 2023, Cho announced that he would join the People Power Party by merging his Transition Korea Party with the PPP. Two parties were formally merged on 9 November 2023.

Political positions

He is politically syncretic,[9] rejecting to be neither conservative nor liberal but being as pragmatic.[10] He supports transition to negative regulation, as well as 300,000 won (≒ ￡200) of basic income.[9]

He is also critical towards Anti-TADA, saying that "renovation is from the market but it should not be prevented at the beginning".[9] He also added that should TADA gives negative influences to taxi drivers, the benefits earned by TADA must be shared with taxi drivers rather than simply prohibiting the platform.[9]

He gained much support for his first interpellation session where he maintained a polite attitude asking unconventional questions. He pointed out the exacerbating economic disparity in Korean society and invited fellow politicians to take measures to alleviate polarization.[11]

Election results

General elections

YearConstituencyPolitical partyVotes (%)Remarks
2020PR (6th)Platform Party[lower-alpha 1]9,307,112 (33.35%)Elected

Notes

  1. ↑ Originally a member of Transition Korea but ran under the Platform Party banner. He officially left the party on 12 May 2020 to return to his original party.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "조정훈 세계은행 우즈벡대표, 더민주 입당". 23 February 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "더민주, 조정훈 세계은행 우즈베키스탄 대표 영입". 23 February 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "더불어민주당, 조정훈 세계은행 우즈베키스탄 사무소 대표 영입". 23 February 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "[단독] 다시 눈뜨는 민주당 잠룡 조정훈 소장 '시대 전환' 운동 시작". 7 November 2019. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  5. ↑ "비정치인 2040 '시대전환' 창당…"모두에 월 30만원 기본소득"". 23 February 2020. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  6. 1 2 "[4·15총선 인터뷰] 시민당 6번 조정훈 "코로나19發 딥체인지에 정부 역할 커질 것"". 13 April 2020. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  7. ↑ "더불어시민당, 용혜인·조정훈 제명 의결…기본소득당·시대전환당 복귀". 12 May 2020. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  8. ↑ https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1084706.html
  9. 1 2 3 4 "조정훈 "혁신 위한 정부 역할은 모든 규제 푸는 것"". 13 May 2020. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  10. ↑ "김종인 지지 '시대전환' "20여명 후보낼 것, 기본소득 공약"". 29 January 2020. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  11. ↑ 진보정당 초선의원의 신박한 대정부질문 / KBS뉴스(News). YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-09.
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