Roh Moo-hyun, President of South Korea

Roh Moo-hyun was born in 1946 in a small farming village in Gimhae, Gyeongsang-namdo province. He graduated from Busan Commercial High School in 1966. Upon passing the national bar examination in 1975, he became a district court judge in the city of Daejeon in 1977. In 1978, he opened his own law office. In 1981 he defended a student who was arrested on trumped-up charges of anti-state activities. Since then, he became a human rights lawyer defending pro-democracy and labor rights activists.

He was one of the leaders of the June (1987)Democratization Struggles. Roh entered into politics in 1988 and led the nation's political reforms with a strong commitment to principles and integrity.

He was elected to the 13th and 15th National Assembly and served as the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. He also served as vice president of the National Congress for New Politics and senior member of the Millennium Democratic Party. During his political career, he experienced a lot of challenges such as the four defeats in the general elections mainly due to divisive regionalism.

However, he did not give in to repeated setbacks and struggled to bring about new politics. He was nominated as the presidential candidate of the Millennium Democratic Party in 2002 through a national primary election system, which was adopted for the first time in Korea. On December 19, 2002, he was elected president in the 16th presidential election. His successful campaign owed much to the strength and support of the voluntary participation of the Korean people.