Rep. Park Young-sun of Democratic Party has been appointed as the next minister of Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS). According to the official announcement of the briefing by presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyum, 7 ministers including MMS were replaced by President Moon Jae-in on 8th March.
Park Young-sun, a former journalist and anchor at MBC, is a four-term member of the National Assembly. She has been leading reform in the economic and judicial sectors by breaking the “first woman” record in succession. She was elected as a proportional representative in the 17th general elections in 2004 and served as a member of the Strategy and Finance Committee, spearheading the passage of the law on the separation of industrial and financial capital and chaebol reformation.
Based on her high awareness, she ran for Seoul Guro in 2008 and won the third term in the 20th general elections. She has become an influential politician since she served as the chairman of the party’s policy committee and an executive secretary of the intelligence committee at the party and the National Assembly.
She was elected to the leadership department in 2012 as the first woman elected by the Democratic Party and became the first woman to become the chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly and the first female floor leader in the history of constitutional government. She is currently the chairman of the special committee on Judicial Reform in the National Assembly.
After graduating from Seoul’s Capital Girls’ High School and geography department at Kyung Hee University, Park received a master’s degree in journalism from Sogang University.
Korea Federation of SMEs (Chairman Kim Ki-moon) welcomed Park Young-sun’s appointment, saying, “She is the right person to take the lead in solving the problem of small and medium-sized companies and small businesses. We urge her to act as a control tower for policies of small and medium businesses and to correct the tilted playgrounds centered on large companies.”
