Choi Hyung-woo

Choi Hyung-woo was born on 15 October 1935 in Seosaeng-myeon, Ulsan County, South Gyeongsang Province, during the period of Japanese rule. He completed primary school in 1948 and graduated from Busan Technical High School in 1954. He then studied political science at Dongguk University in Seoul, graduating in 1958.

In April 1960 he was the student representative of Dongguk University during the April 19 Revolution that brought down the government of Syngman Rhee. In 1968 he became secretary-general of the April 19 and June 3 Pan-Youth Association. Decades later, in 2023, he was formally recognised as a merit holder of the April 19 Revolution and received a government commendation.

Choi entered the National Assembly at the 1971 general election, winning Ulsan and Ulju for the opposition New Democratic Party. He held the seat in the following two elections and became one of the best-known members of the Sangdo-dong faction around Kim Young-sam, named after Kim's home district in Seoul.

After the new military authorities seized power in 1980 he lost his seat and was banned from political activity. He was taken in for interrogation by the Defense Security Command several times and was tortured. He remained active in the opposition through the Democratic Mountain Club founded by Kim Young-sam in 1981, and in 1985 he became secretary-general of the Council for the Promotion of Democracy, the joint body of Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung supporters. Reports credit him with a part in the June Democratic Struggle of 1987 and the eventual launch of a civilian government.

Freed from the political ban, he won Busan Dongnae B in 1988 for the Reunification Democratic Party and served as its floor leader. After the 1990 merger that created the Democratic Liberal Party he joined the new party, was re-elected in 1992 and served as Minister of Political Affairs. With Kim Young-sam's inauguration in 1993 he became secretary-general of the ruling party, championing "change and reform" and pressing its lawmakers to disclose their assets, but he stepped down that year amid allegations over his second son's admission to Kyungwon University.

In December 1993 he was appointed Minister of Home Affairs. In that post he oversaw a reorganisation that merged cities with the surrounding counties sharing the same communities. He resigned in December 1994, taking responsibility for a tax embezzlement scandal at the Bucheon tax office. He won Busan Yeonje in 1996 for the New Korea Party, his sixth term, and became a standing adviser to the party. Seen as a leading contender for the 1997 presidential nomination, he suffered a stroke on 11 March 1997 and withdrew from front-line politics, retiring formally on 29 May 2000.

Choi was married to Won Young-il. They had two sons, Choi Seok-gyun and Choi Je-wan, and two daughters, Choi Eun-ji and Choi Eun-sil. Korean Wikipedia records that he was a Catholic, with the baptismal name John. Dongguk University awarded him an honorary doctorate in political science in 1993. After his stroke in 1997 he lived with long-term illness for almost three decades.

Choi Hyung-woo died at 3:30 a.m. on 24 October 2026 at the Central Veterans Hospital in Seoul, aged 91. His death was announced by former lawmaker Ahn Kyung-ryul and reported by Yonhap News Agency. No specific cause of death was made public; reports noted that he had been ill for many years after a stroke in 1997.

His wake was held in Room 20 of the Samsung Medical Center funeral hall in Seoul, with the funeral procession set to leave on 27 October 2026. The funeral was organised by the Korean National Assembly members' association, the April 19 Revolution Merit Holders Association and the Council for the Promotion of Democracy, and he was to be interred at the National April 19 Democratic Cemetery.

Choi is remembered as one of the central figures of Kim Young-sam's long struggle against military rule and of the civilian government that followed. His career linked the student protests of 1960, the opposition of the 1970s and 1980s and the democratic transition of 1987. As home minister he carried out the 1994 to 1995 merger of urban and rural local authorities, and his illness in 1997 removed one of the most prominent figures from the race to succeed Kim.