Chung Dong-young

Chung Dong-young (; born 27 July 1953) is a South Korean politician who has served as the minister of unification since late July 2025.

A member of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), he was the nominee of the United New Democratic Party in the 2007 South Korean presidential election and previously served as the unification minister from 2004 to 2006.

Early life and career He was born in Sunchang County, North Jeolla Province, South Korea on 27 July 1953. He has a bachelor's degree in Korean History from Seoul National University (1979) and master's from the University of Wales, and before entering politics, he was a journalist and anchor at the Politics Section of the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation. He served as an anchor at MBC Newsdesk from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Chung is a Roman Catholic.

Political career From 1996 to 2004, he served two terms in the National Assembly with the National Congress for New Politics and the Millennium Democratic Party, respectively; has twice been chairman of the Uri Party; and was considered a strong contender to succeed Roh Moo-hyun as president.

In March 2007, while visiting the North Korean town of Kaesong where South Korean companies are set up, he proposed that an inter-Korean summit be organized there. However, since he had lost the presidential election that year, under the Lee Myung-bak government it never materialized.

2007 presidential campaign On October 15, 2007, the United New Democratic Party announced that Chung won about 44 percent of the votes in the party primary, beating two other candidates, to become the party's candidate for the presidential elections that year.

Chung, however, lost the elections to the opposition's Grand National Party candidate Lee Myung-bak by the widest margin since direct elections began in 1987. The loss was attributed primarily to the people's disappointment of the economic situation and its dealings and continuous political strife under the Roh Mu-hyun government as well as the unsuccessful campaign strategies that overly relied on criticizing the other candidate, Lee Myung-bak. The issue of the presidential election in 2007 was predominantly about determining truth of the implication of the presidential candidate Lee Myung bak in the allegation of the investment advisory firm BBK ltd. which had then been accused of large scale stock price manipulation that hurt thousands of individual investors. The primary issue was to prove that he was the real owner of the company.

Lee strongly denied the claim even though there have been plenty of evidence he was at least closely related to the heads of the company and even there was a video tape showing he claiming himself to be the owner of the company. However, any hearings or legal trials of the case had not realized during the presidential election period and obviously after Lee become the president the case lost its force despite the wide public attention to it. Let alone the case, Lee Myung-bak was previously committed fourteen different cases of violations or crimes. However, the widespread perception of the people that the new president has to be the one who can efficiently control the economy has given him the strong edge over the opponent candidate. Evidently, the legitimacy of the president was an issue from the perspective of Chung and Chung's party. He stated that should the turnout for the presidential elections be under 50% that the legitimacy of the result may be an issue. However, the voter turnout was 62.9%.

Earlier, Chung also criticized opposition leader Park Geun-hye of the Grand National Party that they exploited the event to make an image that she is a victim to emotionally move the voters by immediately campaigning during that party's primaries after her recovery from an attack by a man who slashed her face with a small knife. Later, he attributed the downfall of his party in the poll to the attack. Predictably, the Uri Party suffered a major defeat in the elections in which the opposition Grand National Party took 13 of the 16 provinces and major cities.

Minister of Unification (2025–) On 23 June 2025, South Korea President Lee Jae-Myung nominated Chung to once again be unification minister.

On 25 September 2025, Chung said that "North and South are, in fact, two states — already two states, even in international legal terms", though he said that "acknowledging North Korea's statehood does not mean permanent division". On 25 March 2026, Chung referred to the North Korea–South Korea relations as hanjo gwangye (한조관계; Hanguk-Chosŏn relations) instead of the traditional term "North-South relations". He also referred to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the first time a senior South Korean government official had used North Korea's official state name.

Election results Year Elections Constituency Political party Votes (%) Results 1996 15th National Assembly General Election Jeonju Deokjin (North Jeolla) NCNP 97,858 (89.92%) Won 2000 16th National Assembly General Election Jeonju Deokjin (North Jeolla) MDP 98,746 (88.24%) Won 2004 17th National Assembly General Election Proportional representation (22nd) Uri - Resigned 2000 2007 Presidential Election South Korea GUDNP 6,174,681 (26.14%) Defeated 2008 18th National Assembly General Election Dongjak B (Seoul) UDP 36,251 (41.50%) Defeated 2009 2009 By-election Jeonju Deokjin (North Jeolla) Independent 57,423 (72.27%) Won 2012 19th National Assembly General Election Gangnam B (Seoul) DUP 48,419 (39.26%) Defeated 2015 2015 By-election Gwanak B (Seoul) Independent 15,569 (20.15%) Defeated 2016 20th National Assembly General Election Jeonju C (North Jeolla) People's 61,662 (47.72%) Won 2020 21st National Assembly General Election Jeonju C (North Jeolla) Minsaeng 50,022 (32.04%) Defeated 2024 22nd National Assembly General Election Jeonju C (North Jeolla) Democratic 117,407 (82.08%) Won