Background
He was born in Nonsan, Chungcheongnam Province and graduated from Seoul National University.
He was born in Nonsan, Chungcheongnam Province and graduated from Seoul National University.
He served as the first Minister of Labor in President Kim Young-sam’s administration in 1993, and the governor of Gyeonggi Province in 1955. Afterwards, he resigned from the party to create the New People Party, under which he ran for presidency, but was unsuccessful. In 2002, he was one of the leading presidential candidates for the Millennium Democratic Party, but resigned after being defeated by Roh Moo-hyun.
In 2007, he again ran for presidency, but was not successful.
In 1988, he entered politics after having been elected one of the members of the National Assembly. In the 1997, he was defeated by Lee Hoi-chang in the presidential candidate election race for the New of Korea Party.
Ever since, he has continued his political activities and, in July 2014, he was elected as one of the members of the Supreme Council of Saenuri Party, the ruling party of the Republic of of Korea.