Education

Chung was educated at Sungdong High School in Central District, Seoul.^[5][9][10] There he became involved in student politics and was elected President of the Student Council.^[9][3] It was also there where he organised a massive anti-US protest after it was disclosed that the intelligence of the Jimmy Carter administration were bugging the Blue House.^[3] He led the demonstration till a roundabout in Sindang-dong.^[3]

After the graduation in 1979, Chung studied political science and diplomacy at Korea University,^[5][11] where he met his wife, Lee Mi-ho.^[3][4] He also received an honorary doctorate in public administration from Kongju National University in 2011.^[12]

Pre-parliamentary career

After completing his political science and diplomacy degree, Chung joined Hankook Ilbo, where he worked as a journalist and an editorial writer for about 15 years.^[3][4][5] He was involved in the International Department, the Social Department, and the Political Department of the press; he used to be the Deputy Head of the latter department.^{[13][3][4][5][11]} In the mid-1990s, Chung took crucial roles as a Washington, D.C. correspondent;^[3][4][5] in 1994, he flew to Port-au-Prince, Haiti in order to report the situation of a civil war.^[14][4] In 1995, he met Kim Jong-pil who was briefly staying in Washington, D.C. after withdrew from the then ruling Democratic Liberal Party (DLP) following an internal conflict with the then President Kim Young-sam.^[13] Chung advised Kim to establish a new Hoseo-based party, which is the Alliance of Liberal Democrats (ALDE).^[13] Since then, he was known as the "Top No 1 Founder of the ALDE".^[13] In the 1996 election, the ALDE became the 3rd largest party in the National Assembly, winning 50 out of 299 seats.^[15]

Entry to the National Assembly

Prior to the 2000 election, Chung was brought into the Alliance of Liberal Democrats (ALDE) in 1999.^[5][9] He became the Special Adviser to the then Honorary Chairman of the ALDE and the Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil on 16 September 1999.^[16][17][18] From this time, he had been risen as the potential candidate for Gongju-Yeongi, which was also his father's former constituency.^[17][18][19] As his father was not seeking the bid,^[20] Chung won preselection for Gongju-Yeongi.^[21][22] However, Kim Goh-sung, the then MP for Yeongi who lost ALDE preselection, quit the party and joined the newly formed minor New Korea Party of Hope (NKPH).^[23] Amid the 10-cornered fight, Chung barely elected to the National Assembly with approximately 25.2%; this made him as the winner with the lowest votes.^[24][25]

The ruling DJP Alliance consisted of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) and the Alliance of Liberal Democrats (ALDE) narrowly lost to the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) amid internal conflicts between the ruling coalition. For the ALDE, the party only secured 17 seats that was 3 seats fall short of the minimum requirement to form a parliamentary group. Initially, the party was willing to ease the requirement from 20 to 10 seats,^[26] but instead, the MDP sent 3 seats to the ALDE, which was controversial till the Deputy Chairman Kang Chang-hee opposed the decision, but was expelled from the party in the end.^[27][28][29] As the party's future was seemed unclear, Chung urged the party to ensure its own identity, including reconcile with the MDP.^[26][30] Despite of his effort, the DJP Alliance finally broke up on 3 September 2001 after the ALDE voted in favour of a motion of no-confidence against the Minister of Unification Lim Dong-won.^[31] Following the collapse of the DJP Alliance, Chung was appointed Spokesperson of the ALDE on 12 October.^[32][33]

In 2004, the National Assembly voted for the impeachment of Roh Moo-hyun following his remarks that supporting the then de facto ruling Uri Party.^[34] Despite the strong boycott of the Uri Party, 193 MPs from the 3 oppositions (GNP, MDP and ALDE) voted in favour of the impeachment, and Chung was one of them (only Lee Nak-yon and Kim Chong-hoh voted against).^[35] The event, however, provoked a widespread anger among the people, which let the Uri Party to win the majority (152 out of 300 seats) at the 2004 election.^[36] The ALDE only secured 4 seats; Chung also lost his seat to Oh Si-deok.^[37] Nevertheless, he had an opportunity to return as Oh's election was annulled on 27 January 2005.^[38] He subsequently withdrew from the ALDE^[39] and ran as an independent candidate for Gongju-Yeongi at the by-elections on 30 April.^[40][41] He defeated the Uri candidate Lee Byung-ryung with a margin of 4,630 votes.^[42]

People First Party

By the time he withdrew from the ALDE, Chung was widely speculated to join the proposed Hoseo-based localist conservative party, projected by the Governor of South Chungcheong Shim Dae-pyung and the Mayor of Daejeon Yŏm Hong-ch'ŏl;^[43][44] Yŏm instead joined the Uri Party.^[45] On 19 October, the formation of the new party named the People First Party (PFP) was announced by several key figures including Shim, Chung and so on.^[46][47]

On 17 January 2006, the PFP was officially established.^[48][49][50] Shim Dae-pyung and Shin Kook-hwan was elected co-presidents,^[48][49][50] while Chung was appointed parliamentary leader the following day.^[51][52]

However, on 14 December 2007, 5 days before the presidential election, Chung made an announcement to leave the PFP.^[53][54] He did not mention the reasons clearly, but several newspapers suggested that he opposed the Shim's withdrawal in order to support the independent candidate Lee Hoi-chang, as he was in favour of the GNP candidate Lee Myung-bak.^[53][54] Following the landslide victory of Lee, Chung officially joined the GNP on 17 January 2008.^[55][56][57]

Senior Secretary to the President for Political Affairs (2010-2011)

On 13 July 2010, Chung was nominated Senior Secretary to the President for Political Affairs by the President Lee Myung-bak.^{[65][66][67][68]} He then subsequently resigned as an MP due to a law that prohibiting MPs to hold positions of the Blue House; the vacancy was succeeded by Kim Sung-dong, son of the former Speaker Kim Soo-han.^[69][70]

The GNP was undergoing internal conflicts between pro-Lee Myung-bak and pro-Park Geun-hye faction over several issues, including the construction of Sejong City.^[71][72][73] One of Chung's first moves as Senior Secretary to the President for Political Affairs was the arbitration between Lee and Park.^[74] He organised meetings between two key figures of the party at the Blue House;^[10] the first was on 21 August.^[75][76] He also coordinated a project to make Park as the Lee's special envoy to Netherlands, Portugal and Greece in April 2011.^[77][78][79] Despite several criticisms during this period, his projects were widely regarded as successful.^{[76][10][80][81]}

Secretary-General of the National Assembly (2013-2014)

After the resignation on 10 June 2011,^[76] Chung became the Saenuri candidate for Seoul Central at the 2012 election.^[82] He contested against Chyung Ho-joon, a son of Chyung Dai-chul who was the former 5-term MP for the constituency.^{[83][84][85][86]} He failed to make a comeback by securing 28,904 votes (46.33%) that was lower than Chyung's 31,364 votes (50.27%).^[87] Instead, he was appointed Chief Secretary to the Speaker Kang Chang-hee on 2 July.^{[88][89][90][91]}

On 27 December, shortly after Park Geun-hye was elected President, Chung was nominated Secretary-General of the National Assembly.^[92][93][94] 193 out of 224 MPs voted in favour of his appointment on 1 January 2013.^[95] He oversaw several parliamentary reforms, including the establishment of suicide prevention facilities at the National Assembly Secretariat,^[96][97] as well as changing its temporary workers into full-time.^[98]

He resigned on 27 February 2014 in order to run as the Governor of South Chungcheong at the local elections in June.^{[99][100][101][102]} He won Saenuri preselection^[103][104] but lost to the incumbent Ahn Hee-jung.^[105]

Parliamentary leader of the Saenuri Party (2016)

In the 2016 election, Chung contested for Gongju-Buyeo-Cheongyang and defeated the Democratic candidate Park Soo-hyun.^[106] Nevertheless, his Saenuri Party suffered an upset crushing defeat, which resulted in a hung parliament.^[107][108] Kim Moo-sung subsequently resigned as party president, which let the position to be vacant until a new person is elected.^[109][110]

On 1 May, Chung launched his bid to run for the parliamentary leadership.^[111][112] 2 days later, he defeated Na Kyung-won and Yoo Ki-june by receiving 69 out of 119 votes.^[80][81] This made him as the first non-MP parliamentary leader in South Korean history ever, as his term was not started yet.^[81] He also became the interim President of the party,^[113] which he hold until being replaced by Kim Hee-ok on 2 June.^[114][115]

He also led a negotiation with Woo Sang-ho (Democratic) and Park Jie-won (People's) on 8 June.^[116] The Saenuri lost 2 committees (the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee and the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts) to the Democratic.^[116] The Legislation and Judiciary Committee, which was often regarded as the de facto "Senate",^[117][118] was taken by the Democratic during the last session (2012-2016), but was handed over to the Saenuri in this time.^[116] The Saenuri failed to maintain the speakership that was taken over by Chung Sye-kyun of the Democratic.^{[119][120][121][122]}

The President Park Geun-hye was under public pressure to resign following a report of JTBC about Choi Soon-sil on 24 October.^[123] While 3 opposition parties (Democratic, People's, and Justice) agreed to bring the impeachment vote,^[124] Chung previously mentioned that the Saenuri would not vote against.^[125] On 9 December, 234 out of 300 MPs (1 did not attend) voted in favour of the impeachment of Park, and therefore Park's duty was immediately suspended.^[126][127] The next day, JoongAng Ilbo analysed that about 62 Saenuri MPs voted for, and 20 out of 62 are pro-Park MPs.^[128] 2 days later, Chung made an official announcement to step down as the parliamentary leader, saying, "As the parliamentary leader of the ruling party, I think it is reasonable to be responsible for the impeachment vote."^[129][130]

"Leftist Zombies" remark

During the hearing session of the Prime Minister-nominee Lee Nak-yon on 24 May 2017, the MP for Jeungpyeong-Jincheon-Eumseong Kyeong Dae-soo put forwarded a question to Lee regarding an issue of the default of national service of his son.^{[167][168][169]} However, Kyeong was immediately attacked by netizens after it was reported that Kyeong's son also defaulted national service.^[169] Soon, Chung denounced them using a term "Leftist Zombies (좌파 좀비)" on his Facebook.^{[170][171][172][173]} Following a public backlash, he removed the term.^{[170][171][172][173]}

MV Sewol tragedy remarks

On 15 June 2018, following a crushing defeat of the Liberty Korea Party (LKP) at the 2018 local elections, Chung replied to a reporter's question, saying, "We were fully sunken like MV Sewol. Scathing self-reflections and self-examinations should be first, and we need to think carefully."^{[174][175][176]} Several netizens harshly criticised his response.^[177]

On 16 April 2019, Chung again provoked a controversy related to the MV Sewol tragedy by posting a following post on his Facebook:^{[178][179][180]}

"Please stop asking them to use the tragedy again. If they're really sorry about the deceased kids, they're not supposed to do that. I'm totally sick of it."

A message I've received today.^{[178][179][180]}

A day before, Cha Myong-jin, the former MP for Sosa, also provoked a controversy by posting defamatory remarks against the bereaved families of the tragedy.^{[178][179][180]}

Lee Jae-jung, the Spokesperson of the Democratic Party, urged the LKP to sack them immediately.^[181] Park Joo-min, a Democratic MP, said, "Sick of it? It's actually people like you. Not only sick of, but also scared of."^[178]

Chung soon removed the post and made an apology to the bereaved families.^[182] He was warned by the party on 29 May.^{[183][184][185]}

General elections

Local elections