Rhyu Si-min 유시민 柳時敏
Member of the National Assembly
In office April 25, 2003 – May 29, 2008
Preceded by	Kwack Chi-Young (canceled)
Succeeded by	Son Beom-gyu
Constituency	Deogyang 1st ( Goyang)
Minister of Health and Welfare
In office February 10, 2006 – May 22, 2007
President	Roh Moo-hyun
Preceded by	Kim Geun-tae
Succeeded by	Byun Jae-jin
Personal details
Born	(1959-07-28) July 28, 1959 (age 64) Bukbu-dong, Gyeongju-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do South Korea
Political party	Independent (2018-) Justice Party (South Korea) (2012-2018) Unified Progressive Party (2011-2012) People's Participation Party (2009-2011) Independent (2008-2009) United New Democratic Party (2007-2008) Uri Party (2003-2007) People's Party for Reform (2002-2003)
Spouse	Han Gyeong-hye
Residence(s)	Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu Seoul metropolitan city South Korea
Alma mater	Seoul National University Department of Economics ( B.S.) Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz Gutenberg School of Management & Economics ( M.S.)
Profession	Politician
Signature
Website	Official website in Korean
Military service
Allegiance	South Korea
Branch/service	Republic of Korea Army
Years of service	1980-1983
Rank	Byeongjang
Korean name
Hangul	유시민
Hanja	柳 時 敏
Revised Romanization	Yu Simin
McCune–Reischauer	Yu Simin

Rhyu Si-min ( Korean: 유시민; born July 28, 1959) is a South Korean politician who served as the 44th Minister of Health and Welfare from February 2006 to May 2007. Before starting his political career since August 2002, he was a journalist of Dong-a Ilbo and The Hankyoreh, with having his continuous progressive and liberal attitudes. He was in the UNDP as an Assembly member (representative) for Deogyang A district, and is a graduate of Seoul National University with a degree in Economics, and master's from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Economics. He resigned on May 22, 2007. He declared his presidential candidacy on August 18, 2007. ^[1]

He was selected by the liberal opposition parties to run for governor of Gyeonggi-do province on May 13, 2010 ^[2] In December 2011, Rhyu merged his People's Participation Party into the Unified Progressive Party, of which he was one of the co-chairs. ^[3]

He announced his retirement from politics on February 19, 2013. ^{[4] [5]}

Career

After graduating Shim-in Senior High(School) in Daegu, he entered Seoul National University and served as president of the Students' Union in the 1980s. He fought against Chun Doo-hwan's military regime to bring freedom and democracy to his nation, however, he was arrested with an accusation (the SNU Fraction case, which was made by Chun's regime) and enlisted to the DMZ to serve a military service for 33 months. He has become popular in a field of the Democratic movement of South Korea, with claiming his false-charge with ' The grounds of an appeal'(항소이유서) against the Seoul district court which secured by Chun's regime. ^[6]

After the 1987 election, he married his colleague, Dr. Han Gyeong-hye (한경혜), an SNU graduate in Mathematics (and a fellow of Democratic movement) on November 1988, and served as an aide to Lee Hae Chan (a Member at that moment) for 2 years. After finishing his job, the couple went to Germany to study their majors in the 1990s. ^[7]

He has predicted that a gigantic scandal affiliated to the Lee Myung-bak government will be eventually publicized due to the two elections in 2012. ^[8]

Since 2019, Rhyu has been the host of a YouTube show and podcast called "Alileo" which literally means "I want you to know".

On September 25, 2020, he called Kim Jong-un an Enlightenment monarch for officially apologizing for killing the South Korean people, sparking controversy in South Korea. ^[9]

References

External links

• Official Homepage (in Korean)
• Simin Gwangjang(시민광장, Official political initiative)(in Korean)
• Simin Sarang(시민사랑, Official on-line fanpage) (in Korean)
• Simin Maul(시민마을, Online fanpage) (in Korean)
• Newsimin(뉴 시민, On-line fanpage) (in Korean)