 |
| Former Deputy Prime Minister Cho Soon / Yonhap |
Former Deputy Prime Minister Cho Soon, a renowned economics scholar who also served as Seoul's first publicly elected mayor, died of natural causes Thursday. He was 94.
Cho died while undergoing treatment at Asan Medical Center in southeastern Seoul, according to medical sources.
A graduate of Seoul National University, Cho served as deputy prime minister and finance minister between 1988 and 1990 and became the first publicly elected mayor of Seoul from 1995 to 1997 on the ticket of what is now the Democratic Party of Korea.
Between 1992 and 1993, Cho also served as the chief of the Bank of Korea.
Cho earned a doctorate in economics at the University of California, Berkeley.
He started off his career as a Seoul National University professor in 1968 upon returning home from the U.S.
Two decades later, he was appointed finance minister, doubling as deputy prime minister for economic affairs, by then President Roh Tae-woo, opening up his second career path as a top-level government official.
He built a name for himself as an economics guru well versed in the Korean economy through more high-profile official posts, including governor of the central bank.
After expanding into politics, Cho also served as chairman of both the mainstream conservative and liberal parties in the late 1990s.
From 1998 to 2000, Cho served as a lawmaker representing a constituency in his home city of Gangneung, 168 kilometers east of Seoul.
In 2002, Cho was appointed an honorary economics professor at his alma mater Seoul National University. (Yonhap)
