Chung Sye-kyun

At the Democratic Party national convention on 6 July 2008, Chung was elected leader of the party, defeating Choo Mi-ae, his closest competitor.[6]

In July 2009, Chung went on a six-day hunger strike to protest a series of media laws passed by the ruling Grand National Party. He resigned his assembly seat on 24 July alongside Chun Jung-bae, labeling the bills invalid and stating that passing legislation through "illegal voting and violence cannot be justified".[7][8] Some 70 Democratic lawmakers also handed letters of resignation to Chung,[7] and Chung announced that the party would begin a hundred-day campaign in the streets against the laws.[9] Chung and his fellow party members returned to the assembly on 27 August after a month of protests.[10]

Chung faced calls to resign as party leader after the Democratic Party underperformed in the 2010 by-elections, losing five of the eight seats being contested. He accepted the demands and resigned alongside the rest of the party leadership on 2 August taking responsibility for the defeat.[11]

In the 2012 parliamentary election, Chung moved from Jeolla to Seoul to contest Jongno, an important constituency encompassing the Dongdaemun and the presidential residence at the Blue House.[12] He defeated his Saenuri Party competitor Hong Sa-duk, a six-term assemblyman and leading supporter of Park Geun-hye.[12] Remaining in Jongno as a member of the Minjoo Party of Korea, four years later in the 2016 elections Chung successfully fended off a challenge from another Saenuri heavyweight, former Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon, confounding opinion polls from before the vote that had suggested Oh would win.[13] Prior to the 2016 election, Chung had criticized the Minjoo leadership for failing to nominate enough women and minority candidates.[14] In December 2019, he was nominated the second prime minister of the Moon Jae-in government.[15] He took office as the 42nd Prime Minister on January 14, 2020.[16]