Eun Soo-mi
은수미
Mayor of Seongnam
In office
1 July 2018 – 30 June 2022
Preceded byLee Jae-myung
Succeeded byShin Sang-jin
Member of the National Assembly
In office
30 May 2012 – 29 May 2016
ConstituencyProportional
Personal details
Born (1963-12-06) 6 December 1963
Jeongeup, North Jeolla, South Korea
CitizenshipSouth Korean
Political partyDemocratic
Other political
affiliations		Democratic Unionist Party (2012-2013)
Democratic Party (2013-2014)
New Politics Alliance for Democracy (2014-2015)
Alma materSeoul National University
OccupationActivist, politician

Eun Soo-mi (Korean: 은수미; Hanja: 殷秀美, born 6 December 1963) is a South Korean activist and politician who served as a member of National Assembly from 2012 to 2016. She was elected as the Mayor of Seongnam in 2018, made her as the first woman to hold the position.

Early life

Eun was born in Jeongeup, North Jeolla,[1] but grew in Gwanak District of Seoul. Her father was a soldier.[2] Later, in 2013, she recalled her childhood: "I used to live at Sillim-dong for around 20 years. At that time my family was likely rich, compared to most of my friends living at slums. I faced 2 impressive incidents, one was when I was a primary student. I pushed my friend as "playing", then her body involuntarily broke the wall and moved to the next door. For me it was quite shocking, because it was totally different from my home. Another incident was happened when I was a secondary student. During that time one of my friends lost her father, so I visited her house. I realised that her family rented a mud house."[3]

She earned a Bachelor's Degree of Sociology from Seoul National University.[4] Initially, she desired to be a nun, but gave up as her parents didn't allow.[5]

During the early of 1990s, Eun was a member of South Korean Socialist Workers' Alliance,[6][3][7][8][5][4] along with Cho Kuk and Rhyu Si-min. This activity caused her to be detained in 1992, under the breach of National Security Act.[8][5] She later mentioned she was tortured by Agency for National Security Planning and underwent several diseases.[6][7][8][5] It made her to be selected as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.[8]

In 2004, she was hired to Korea Labour Institute and used to write various theses.[7][2] This experience boosted her career, made her as one of the well-known labour experts.[7]

Political career

Member of National Assembly (2012-2016)

Originally, Eun was not intended to be a politician.[6] The first time when requested by Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), she faced her family's objections.[6] After a long thought, she finally decided to join politics in order to "achieve her dream".[6] Then, she ran 3rd in the DUP list for the legislative election in 2012, and won the seat.[6][7][2]

On 24 February 2016, she gained nationwide attentions after a speech for 10 hours and 18 minutes against the Anti-Terrorist Act,[9][5] made it as the longest in South Korean history, where the former record was made by Park Han-sang (10 hours and 15 minutes).[10]

In the 2016 election, Eun ran for the Seongnam Jungwon District.[9] She originally intended to run for this constituency during the by-election in last year,[11] but lost to Jung Hwan-seok at preselection.[12] After Jung was defeated by Shin Sang-jin of Saenuri Party (then Liberty Korea Party), Eun could be selected as the candidate in this time. Nevertheless, after Jung was selected as the candidate of People's Party, Eun also lost to Shin.[9][2] She subsequently accepted the result, but mentioned that she would continue her activities.[9]

Mayor of Seongnam (2018-)

After lost in 2016, Eun served as Secretary of Women and Family in the Blue House from 2017 to 2018.[13][2]

During the local elections in 2018, Eun was considered as one of the possible candidates for Seongnam mayorship. She resigned from the Blue House,[13] and in 25 April, she was selected as the candidate of Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).[14] She received 57.6%,[2] and became the first woman mayor of the city. Moreover, she also became the sole woman mayor within Gyeonggi Province.[2]

Controversy

On 26 April 2018, a person revealed that he was a driver for Eun, and was paid by Komatrade, a company linked to a local gang group, called the International Mafia.[15][16] This controversy was reviewed by Unanswered Questions of SBS in 21 July. It was reported that her predecessor, Lee Jae-myung, was also implicated into the case.[17] She was sued by the prosecution in 11 December.[18]

On 2 September 2019, Eun was fined 900,000 won for violating the Political Funds Act. Due to being fined less than 1 million won, Eun was able to maintain her mayorship.[19] On 30 November 2021, Mayor Eun was indicted by prosecutors on charges on graft and corruption. Eun is accused of having rewarded a 450 million won streetlight replacement contract to an unidentified company in exchange for insider information during the probe into her Political Funds Act violation. The police officer who leaked the insider information is accused of having received 75 million from the company that won the contract. In addition, Eun is alleged to have helped the officer's acquittance secure a position in the municipal government. Eun was also indicted on allegations of having received gifts of cash and wine worth around 4.67 million won from an aide between October 2018 to December 2019. Eun has denied all the allegations from the prosecution.[20]

References

  1. ↑ "[6.13지방선거]전북출신 수도권 등지서 승리". 13 June 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "[인터뷰] 은수미 성남시장 당선인 "시민청원제 도입·시정 결정과정 투명 공개… 시민이 시장이다"". 25 June 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  3. 1 2 "[이너뷰]금수저 물고 태어난 노동자의 편, 은수미를 만나다". 10 March 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  4. 1 2 "'사노맹' 주도 은수미씨 서울대서 박사". 19 January 2005. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 ""약자 편에 서는 것이 정치다"". 3 March 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "'사노맹 여전사' 은수미, 19대 국회 기대주 되다". 18 April 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 ""팽목항과 삼성전자서비스는 맞닿아 있어"". 25 July 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Interview : 은수미 전 국회의원". 26 June 2017. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "(피플)은수미 "해고 직면한 이들이 준 표의 의미에 답해야"". 2 May 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  10. ↑ "은수미 의원 필리버스터 10시간 18분 최장 기록(마무리 발언 전문)". 24 February 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  11. ↑ "김창호·은수미·정환석·홍훈희 4·29보선… 새정치 성남중원 경선 4명 경합". 4 March 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  12. ↑ "새정치, 4.29 성남중원에 정환석 선출". 14 March 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  13. 1 2 "은수미 전 청와대 비서관, 성남시장 예비후보 등록". 27 March 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  14. ↑ "최성 고양시장 공천 탈락…은수미 성남 단수공천". 26 April 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  15. ↑ Chung, Esther. "Gyeonggi gov. allegedly linked to gang". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  16. ↑ "'조폭 출신 사업가 지원설'에 곤혹… 은수미는 왜 타깃이 됐나". 30 April 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  17. ↑ "이재명, '그알' 조폭연루설 미리 반박 "끝없는 이재명 죽이기"". 21 July 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  18. ↑ "검찰, '운전기사 무상지원' 은수미 성남시장 기소". 11 December 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  19. ↑ "'정치자금법 위반' 은수미 벌금 90만원…일단 '안도'(종합)". 2 September 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  20. ↑ "Seongnam Mayor Eun Soo-mi indicted on graft, corruption charges". Yonhap News Agency. 30 November 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
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