| Shim Wan-koo | |||||||||
| Term End1: | 29 May 1992 | ||||||||
| Birth Place: | Daehyeon-myeon, Ulsan-gun, Japanese Korea | ||||||||
| Birth Date: | July 1, 1938 | ||||||||
| Predecessor2: | Ko Won-jun Lee Kyu-jung | ||||||||
| Constituency2: | Ulsan Ulju-gun | ||||||||
| Term End2: | 29 May 1988 | ||||||||
| Term Start2: | 13 May 1985 | ||||||||
| Constituency1: | Ulsan Nam-gu | ||||||||
| Term Start1: | 30 May 1988 | ||||||||
| Office1: | Member of the National Assembly | ||||||||
| Predecessor: | Position established | ||||||||
| Successor: | Park Maeng-woo | ||||||||
| Termend: | 30 June 2002 | ||||||||
| Termstart: | 15 July 1997 | ||||||||
| Office: | Mayor of Ulsan | ||||||||
| Native Name Lang: | ko | ||||||||
| Otherparty: | Grand National Party Democratic Liberal Party Reunification Democratic Party Democratic Korea Party | ||||||||
| Module: |
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| Death Place: | Seocho, Seoul, South Korea | ||||||||
Shim Wan-koo (;; 1 July 1938 – 8 June 2020)[1] [2] was a South Korean politician who served as the first elected Mayor of Ulsan. He was a member of the National Assembly from 1985 to 1992.
Shim was born in Songho Village, Yaum-ri, Daehyeon-myeon, Ulsan-gun, Keishōnan-dō (South Gyeongsang Province), Korea, Empire of Japan on July 1, 1938. He graduated from Sungkyunkwan University; majoring in economics.
Shim ran for the Ulsan-Ulju-gun electoral district in the 1981 South Korean legislative election and but came in third place with only 18.44% of the vote. He ran for the same electoral district in the 1985 South Korean legislative election and was elected along with Kim Tae-ho of the ruling Democratic Justice Party.[3] He ran under the Reunification Democratic Party for the Ulsan Nam-gu electoral district in the 1988 South Korean legislative election and was elected for a four-year term. He ran for the same district in the 1992 South Korean legislative election, but lost to Cha Soo-myung.
Shim was elected as Mayor of Ulsan in 1995, however as Ulsan took its current form as a metropolitan city on July 15, 1997; making Shim's official term start from July 15, 1997.[4]
He left the conservative Grand National Party on September 14, 1998, and joined the more liberal National Congress for New Politics that was led by Kim Dae-jung. He was sentenced to jail in 2002 for accepting bribery from a construction company, but all charges against him were dropped and he was later pardoned by Roh Moo-hyun.[5]
While Shim supported conservative candidate Lee Myung-bak during the 2007 South Korean presidential election,[6] he supported liberal candidate Moon Jae-in during the 2012 South Korean presidential election.[7] He supported Song Cheol-ho's campaign for Mayor of Ulsan in 2018.[8]