Kim Eun-kyung (politician)

Kim was previously widely known to the public as "Ms. Phenol" due to her activism as a citizen representative during 1991 Nakdong River phenol contamination incident.[3]

She first started public service in 1995 when she was elected as Nowon District Council member. On 1998, she was elected as a Seoul Metropolitan Council member. After losing her re-election in 2002, she joined then-candidate Roh Moo-hyun's presidential campaign as his special advisor on environment. She continued working with Roh at his transition team and Blue House until the end of his presidency in 2006.[4]

Kim served as the environment minister from July 2017 to November 2018. In January 2018, the Environment Ministry created a blacklist of 24 public servants associated with the previous Park Geun-hye administration. Kim pressured 15 executives of state-run companies to step down and be replaced by loyalists to the Moon administration. 13 of 24 individuals on the list resigned due to government pressure.[2]

On February 9, 2021, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Kim Eun-kyung to 2 years and six months of prison for the environment ministry blacklist case. The court also ordered her to be immediately jailed to prevent the possible destruction of evidence.[2][5]

She holds three degrees - a bachelor and doctorate in management from Korea University and a master's in urban administration from University of Seoul.[6]

• Order of Service Merit by the government of South Korea (2005)