Bo-eun leads the digital content team. She has covered foreign affairs, North Korea, tech, economy and gender issues at The Korea Times. She did a short stint at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she obtained a new perspective on news production and life. Small sources of joy for her are lounging in the sun, having a good latte and swimming.
PROFILE Who is Kim Moon-soo?
The conservative People Power Party presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo participates in a rally during his labor activist years. Yonhap
By Kim Bo-eun
From labor activist to hardcore conservative
Editor’s note
This is the second of a series of profiles of Korea's presidential candidates.
Former Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo registered as the conservative People Power Party's (PPP) presidential candidate on Sunday for the June 3 snap election, after a week of internal strife as the party leadership sought to push him out in favor of former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.
Kim, 73, is part of Korea's first-generation labor activists of the 1970s and 1980s, but has an unusual trajectory of becoming a hardcore conservative afterward.
He was born the sixth of seven children to his parents in Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, in 1951, and spent his childhood years in a shantytown. He entered Seoul National University's Department of Business in 1970, but it took 25 years for him to graduate because he was expelled for his involvement in anti-dictatorship student activism under the Park Chung-hee administration.
After being expelled from school, he found work at a fabric factory near central Seoul's Cheonggyecheon area and delved in to labor activism.
Kim spent seven years working in physically demanding jobs on the factory floor. In 1975, he secured a position as a cutting assistant at a garment factory near Cheonggyecheon. He still remembers his very first task: punching holes into clothing for snap buttons.
“I was so clumsy that the tailor cursed at me constantly,” he wrote in his memoir. “But that was the first time I truly felt myself becoming humble.”
During those years, Kim earned seven technical certifications, including one in heating systems, which led to a job as a boiler mechanic. In 1978, while working there, he was elected leader of the Dorco Labor Union under the Federation of Korean Metal Workers Trade Unions — marking the start of his career as a labor activist.
He was arrested and detained for his participation in labor and democracy movements, becoming a prominent figure nationwide. The mother of the legendary labor activist Jeon Tae-il (1948-1970), who died by self-immolation in protest of dire working conditions at factories in the 1960s, referred to Kim as her son.
Kim Moon-soo, presidential candidate of the People Power Party, joins a campaign rally in Ulsan, Tuesday. Joint Press Corps
In 1980, Kim was arrested on charges of organizing an anti-state group and taken to a notorious interrogation center in Namyeong-dong, central Seoul, where he was tortured and held in detention.
He was arrested again in 1986 for leading a pro-democracy movement in Incheon and spent two years in prison.
In his memoir, Kim described the torture he endured, including being bound by his hands and feet in an arched position.
“It was devastating to realize that human beings are capable of inflicting — and enduring — such inhumane cruelty,” he wrote. “When I tried to end my life by slamming my head against the wooden floor, they covered it with a helmet — heavier than a kendo mask.”
Kim took a drastic shift, however, in the 1990s, when then-Democratic Liberal Party chief Kim Young-sam called him to join. The party was the predecessor of today's People Power Party. Since then, Kim remained in the conservative camp, becoming a three-term lawmaker representing a district in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province. He was elected governor of Gyeonggi Province in 2006, and served a second term in 2010.
But his political career was delivered a blow with a scandal so infamous in Korea it’s practically become a proper noun: the notorious “I’m the governor” incident.
In 2011, while serving as governor of Gyeonggi Province, Kim called the 119 emergency line. Instead of clearly explaining why he called, Kim repeatedly told the firefighter on the line, “I’m the governor, Kim Moon-soo.” When pressed for details about the emergency, he continued repeating his name and demanded the responder’s name and rank.
When the firefighter pressed for details, Kim reportedly snapped, “I’m the governor. why won’t you answer me?”
The incident was widely viewed as an abuse of power. The image of a public official berating an emergency responder without offering any explanation became a lasting symbol of political arrogance.
The scandal dealt a significant blow to Kim’s political career, leading to a string of electoral defeats. In the 2016 general election, he ran in Daegu — a conservative stronghold — but was decisively beaten by a candidate from the Democratic Party of Korea. Two years later, he made a bid for Seoul mayor and lost once again.
Earlier, buoyed by the national recognition he had gained as governor, Kim had entered the conservative party’s preliminary race for the 2012 presidential election. He was defeated by Park Geun-hye, who would go on to win the presidency. His repeated failures left him on the sidelines of politics for nearly a decade.
However, Kim made a comeback under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, serving as labor minister.
He stood by former President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law declaration in December by refusing to apologize with cabinet members at the National Assembly. Kim was elected the PPP's presidential candidate on May 3, beating prosecutor-turned-politician Han Dong-hoon in the second preliminary round.