Yun Hee-suk explained

Yun Hee-suk
Native Name Lang:ko
Birth Date:7 February 1970
Birth Place:Seoul, South Korea
Citizenship:South Korean
Office1:Member of the National Assembly
Constituency1:Seocho A
Term Start1:30 May 2020
Term End1:13 September 2021
Predecessor1:Lee Hye-hoon
Successor1:Cho Eun-hee
Party:People Power
Otherparty:UFP (2020)
Alma Mater:Seoul National University
Columbia University
Occupation:Economist, politician
Signature:Yun Hee-suk signature.svg
Module:
Hangul:윤희숙
Hanja:尹喜淑
Rr:Yun Hui-suk
Mr:Yun Hŭi-suk
Child:yes

Yun Hee-suk (born 7 February 1970) is a South Korean economist and politician. She was the Member of the National Assembly for Seocho A constituency from 2020 to 2021.

Education

She holds a bachelor's and a master's degree in economics from Seoul National University.[1] [2] [3] She had also obtained a doctorate in economics at Columbia University.[1] [2] [3]

Career

Prior to entering politics, Yun worked as a researcher and a professor at the Korea Development Institute (KDI), specialising labour, finance, income, welfare and middle class issues.[4] Within the KDI, she also served as the Head of Department of Finance and Welfare Policy Research.[4] She was also one of few women promoted from doctor to department head at the KDI.[4] During this period, she harshly criticised the economic policy of the President Moon Jae-in.[1] [2] [3]

Prior to the 2020 election, Yun was brought into the newly formed conservative United Future Party (UFP).[1] [2] [3] She was then selected the UFP candidate for Seocho A constituency,[1] [5] replacing the incumbent Lee Hye-hoon who had moved to Dongdaemun 2nd constituency. In the election on 15 April, she received 62.60%, defeating the ruling Democratic candidate Lee Jung-keun.[1] [3]

On 30 July, she delivered a speech at the National Assembly Proceeding Hall, known as "I'm a lessee."[6] [7] During the speech, she criticised the ruling Democratic Party for the newly passed 3 Rental Acts.[6] [7] This speech was praised by another UFP MPs i.e. Hwangbo Seung-hee and Park Soo-young.[7] On 6 August, Realmeter analysed that the speech helped the UFP to gain more supports.[8]

She was widely considered a potential candidate for the 2021 leadership election.[9]

Political positions

Economy

Yun is economically liberal.[1] She is harshly critical towards the President Moon Jae-in, accusing his economic policy as "populism" since a researcher of the KDI.[1] [2] [3] This gave her a nickname "Populism Fighter (포퓰리즘 파이터)".[1] [2] [3] [10]

The main policies that she is criticising are minimum wage increase, 52-hour workweek and real estate policies.[5] [10] As an example, for the minimum wage, she cited that while Japan had increased 3% per year during a decade, South Korea has increased 30% within 2 years, in which she mentioned that labour forces like part-time and/or temporary workers will be damaged.[11] She also accused that Moon's economic policy will lead the country to be like Venezuela or Argentina.[11]

She has a sceptical view towards Keynesian economic policies adopted by the President Moon, mentioning that the policy is actually "impossible and nonsense".[11] She also added that South Korea needs a leadership like Margaret Thatcher.[10] [11]

Education

During a parliamentary speech on 30 July 2020, Yun criticised the education policy of Moon's government.[12] [13] She cited an example of her elder sister who had already given up for mathematics during her school life.[12] [13] She believes that this kind of problem was occurred due to the standardised education system.[12] [13] In order to overcome this issue, she had suggested an idea, which is that an artificial intelligence (AI) provides exercises that are suitable for each student.[12] [13] In fact, this idea was once applied at the Introduction to Probability and Statistics subject at the KDI and no one failed at the subject.[13]

She also analysed that the current South Korean education system has failed to innovate due to high restrictions towards e-learning and strong objections from teachers and lecturers.[12] [13]

Works

Election results

General elections

References

  1. News: 5 August 2020. "저는 임차인입니다", 부동산 전문 학자 출신 윤희숙 국회의원. 19 August 2020.
  2. News: 3 August 2020. 윤희숙, ‘5분 연설’ 직전 김종인 독대했다. 19 August 2020.
  3. News: 윤희숙. 19 August 2020.
  4. News: 3 August 2020. "저는 임차인" 윤희숙 의원은 누구?…KDI시절 어땠나. 19 August 2020.
  5. News: 13 March 2020. "여의도 가서 포퓰리즘 경제정책 막겠다". 25 August 2020.
  6. News: 31 July 2020. "저는 임차인입니다" 통합당 윤희숙 ‘5분 연설’ 화제. 25 August 2020.
  7. News: 31 July 2020. [영상] 윤희숙의 5분 '사이다 경제학'…"무슨 배짱과 오만으로"]. 25 August 2020.
  8. News: 6 August 2020. 윤희숙·윤석열이 통합당 웃게했다…민주당 지지율차 0.8%P뿐. 25 August 2020.
  9. News: 16 May 2021. 나경원, 국민의힘 당대표 출마 굳혀..캠프 꾸렸다. 18 May 2021.
  10. News: 13 March 2020. 윤희숙 "여의도에서 포퓰리즘 경제정책 잡는다". 25 August 2020.
  11. News: May 2020. 文 정권의 경제 폭정 막을 포퓰리즘 파이터. 25 August 2020.
  12. News: 8 August 2020. 윤희숙 "언니는 수포자"…이번엔 文정부 교육정책 저격. 25 August 2020.
  13. News: 9 August 2020. '임차인' 윤희숙 의원이 꺼낸 '수포자' 친언니. 25 August 2020.

External links