Cho Kuk

Cho Kuk (Korean: 조국; born 6 April 1965) is a South Korean politician who served as the leader of the Rebuilding Korea Party in 2024 and from 2025 to 2026. He previously held office as the senior secretary to the president for civil affairs from 2017 to 2019, as the minister of justice from September to October 2019, and as a member of the National Assembly of South Korea from May to December 2024. Born in Seo District, Busan, Cho graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Doctor of Juridical Science before becoming a professor at Seoul National University School of Law. Beyond academia, he was active in a range of civic and advocacy organizations concerned with human rights, such as the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and the National Human Rights Commission of Korea. He entered politics as a senior presidential aide for civil affairs under the cabinet of Moon Jae-in from May 2017 to July 2019. Cho was subsequently appointed Minister of Justice, a position he held from September 2019 until his resignation on 14 October 2019 due to his involvement in a series of controversies, including allegations of corruption surrounding his family's business activities. In 2023, Cho was convicted of falsifying documents in connection with his children's college admissions and sentenced to two years in prison. In March 2024, he founded the Rebuilding Korea Party ahead of the 2024 South Korean legislative election. In December 2024, the South Korea Supreme Court upheld the lower courts' ruling, effectively disqualifying him from his seat in the 22nd National Assembly of South Korea and barring him from running for office for five years. As a result, he lost his seat in the National Assembly and was barred from running for public office for five years under South Korean...