Choe Kang-wook

Choe Kang-wook (; born 24 March 1968) is a South Korean lawyer and politician who was the former President of the Open Democratic Party (ODP) from 2020 to 2022. He served as the Secretary to the President for Public Office Discipline from September 2018 to March 2020. In the 2020 election, he was elected as a Member of the National Assembly. In September 2023, the Supreme Court of Korea removed him from office as a member of the National Assembly after it upheld his sentence of a suspended eight month prison term for his involvement in forging a fake internship certificate for the son of the Justice Minister Cho Kuk.

Early life and education Choe was born in Namwon, North Jeolla Prior to be transferred to major in 2005, he was the Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) of the 3rd Cops, Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutors Office Ministry of National Defence and the Deputy Chief of the High Public Prosecutor's Office.

Lawyer After being discharged in 2005, Choe worked as a lawyer, mainly focusing human rights issues within the military. He was an ombudsman at the Defence Acquisition Programme Administration, an expert member in human rights education at the National Human Rights Commission and a member of the Special Committee on Ethics of the National Assembly.

He used to be a member of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society following the recommendation of Lee Jung-hee.

Secretary to the President for Public Office Discipline On 5 September 2018, Choe was appointed the Secretary to the President for Public Office Discipline, replacing Kim Jong-ho who was moved to the Secretary-General of the Board of Audit and Inspection. At the beginning he denied it, but 2 days later he was reported he had already registered as a pre-candidate of the Open Democratic Party (ODP). He was selected 2nd in the ODP list and was elected.

On 19 April, Choe was appointed the interim President of the ODP following the resignation of the incumbent Lee Keun-shik due to the poor performance in the election. Being the sole candidate running for the party's presidency, he was elected the ODP President on 12 May with the support of 99.6%.

On 26 December 2021, both the Democratic Party and the ODP agreed to merge each other, under the name of the "Democratic Party of Korea". The ODP was later merged into the Democratic Party on 18 January 2022. As a part of the agreement, Choe became one of the vice presidents of the Democratic Party. The internship certificate helped Cho Won apply and be admitted into the Yonsei University Graduate School, and receive a master's degree in political science. He also added that the prosecution threatened him to attend, otherwise they would reveal his real name in public. Before that, according to JoongAng Ilbo, he was in charge of personnel verification of Cho Kuk during the time of his appointment.

On 7 January 2020, the Liberty Korea Party filed a lawsuit against Choe for obstruction and breaching the Anti-graft Law. 16 days later, he was charged by the prosecution. On 22 April, he was again sued by a civic organisation for bribery.

On 28 January 2021, Choe was sentenced to a suspended 8 month prison sentence with a stay of execution for 2 years for the crime of obstruction of business by the Seoul Central District Court. The judge, Jeong Jong-geon, stated according to the claims of the fake internship certificate, Cho Won would have worked an average of twelve minutes for every time he visited the office. He also stated that the employees at the law firm had never seen Cho Won working regularly as an intern.

Suspension from Democratic Party During a book publishing event on November 19, 2023, Choe made a sexist comment, referring to the South Korean First Lady Kim Keon-hee as an amkeot . He was criticized by both members of the ruling People Power Party and his own party, the Democratic Party. The Korean National Council of Women called on Choe to apologize for his derogatory remarks. On November 22, the Democratic Party suspended Choe Kang-wook's party membership for six months in response.

Controversies Channel A broadcaster transcript On 3 April 2020, Choe revealed a recorded transcript of Lee Dong-jae, a broadcaster of Channel A, on his Facebook.

Quote frame|Dear Mr Lee, it's ok if it's not true.Just tell people you gave money to Rhyu Si-min if you wanna survive. That's all... Nevertheless, 3 days later, Lee Bo-kyung, a worker of MBC, posted on her Facebook that the transcript disclosed by Choe was not true.

Election results General elections Year Elections Constituency Political party Votes (%) Remarks 2020 21st National Assembly General Election PR (2nd) Open Democratic 1,512,763 (5.42%) Elected