YS’s right-hand man, former Interior Minister Choi Hyung-woo, dies at 91

[Financial News] Kim Young-sam’s closest confidant, former Minister of Home Affairs Choi Hyung-woo, who played a key role in the pro-democracy movement and the launch of the civilian government, died on the 24th. He was 91.
The former minister died at 3:30 a.m. that day at Seoul Central Veterans Hospital.
Born in Ulsan in 1935, Choi graduated from Busan Technical High School and Dongguk University’s Department of Political Science and Diplomacy. He joined the pro-democracy movement while serving as a student representative at Dongguk University during the April 19 Revolution in 1960.
In the 1971 general election, the eighth general election, he ran in the Ulsan–Ulju constituency as a member of the New Democratic Party and was elected to the National Assembly for the first time. He went on to serve in the 9th, 10th, 13th, 14th and 15th National Assemblies, making him a six-term lawmaker.
Choi was a key figure in the Sangdo-dong faction centered around former President Kim Young-sam. He enjoyed YS’s deep trust, to the point that he and former Minister of State for Political Affairs Kim Dong-young were known as “Dong-young on the left, Hyung-woo on the right.”
In 1980, he lost his Assembly seat under the new military leadership and was repeatedly taken to the Defense Security Command, where he was tortured. He later joined the Democratic Mountain Club, founded by YS in 1981, and continued the pro-democracy movement against the military regime as executive secretary of the Council for the Promotion of Democracy in 1985.
In politics, he served as vice chairman of the New Democratic Party, senior vice chairman of the Democratic Party, and floor leader, among other positions. After the three-party merger in 1990, he joined the Democratic Liberal Party and became Minister of State for Political Affairs I.
After the launch of the civilian government in 1993, he served as secretary-general of the Democratic Liberal Party and Minister of Home Affairs, holding a range of key posts in the ruling party and government.
Ahead of the 1997 presidential election, he was mentioned as one of the ruling camp’s leading contenders. But he suffered a stroke that year, bringing his political career to a halt, and battled illness for many years thereafter. His funeral altar has been set up in Room 20 of the funeral hall at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul. The funeral procession will depart at 8 a.m. on the 27th.

[email protected] Kim Kyung-min Reporter