Ri Yeong-hwan
Esteemed Excellency Ri Yeong-hwan | |
|---|---|
| 리영환 | |
 | |
| Prime Minister of Buyeong | |
| Assumed office 9 February 2019 | |
| Monarch | Sinjeong |
| Deputy | Lee Jae-kim |
| Preceded by | Kim Hae-song |
| Member of the House of Representatives for District 6 | |
| Assumed office 29 June 1999 | |
| Monarch | Sinjeong |
| Prime Minister | Park Nak-hyung Kim Hae-seong |
| Preceded by | New position |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ri Yeong-hwan 26 December 1957 Gwangcheon, Buyeong |
| Political party | New Democratic Front |
| Height | 189 cm (6 ft 2 in) |
| Spouse | Choi Sae-kyun |
| Children | 3 |
Ri Yeong-hwan (born 26 December 1957) is a Buyeong politician serving as Prime Minister of Buyeong since 2019. He has been Member of the House of Representatives (MHR) serving District 6 since 1999. A member of the New Democratic Front, he studied at Gwanggaeto University in the late seventies and obtained his degree in Journalism not shortly after. His activism has involved in peace missions across the world, and being the centerpiece of the many frivolous scandals that have plagued his tenure. He was brought into office after a confidence vote and fresh elections conceded Kim Hae-song's premiership to him succeeding a wave of protests.
Said to be a champion of worker-based populism, he was a major opponent of the insurgencies in Buyeong in the 1970s and 80s and political corruption as a whole, but after beginning his political career his overall strategy changed and he has been indifferent on corruption. He has been accused of anti-TBD bigotry and allegedly authorising systematic discriminatory laws against TBD. In 2020 after an investigation of statements he made launched by the National Party had arose as the hotspot of discussion.
In 2021, he announced that he would spearhead a national "crime-tackling" operation, by reforming prisons to issue penalties on inmates likely to reoffend revolving around a point-based system. In late 2021, he was involved in a major scandal that caused the resignation of 30 MHRs and a near vote of no confidence to be cast against him. He allowed a by-election in his district to go through on 12 December 2021.
Early life
Ri Yeong-hwan was born in 1955, in Gwangcheon, Buyeong. His parents were extraordinarily socialist, pushing for a forceful revolution against the Prime Minister at the time, Hu byeong-cheol and frequently attended protests which coincided with his near assassination in 1955. In his youth, he attended Danggye High School from 1966 to 1973. In his later years attending secondary school, in 1971, he began circulating an informal politically critical newspaper that was not received well, as he was a middle-class student amidst a time of class discrimination.
He then left and moved to the capital, which was more developed, less crowded and more organised. This overturned the socialist views he was developing periodically. He attended the University of Gyeongjin, just established eight years before, and his conservative publications were received gladly during this time. He met his wife Choi Sae-kyun two years later, and graduated in 1977. Just three year later, the collapsing dynamic in his country harnessed by rebel democratic leaders in 1978 would start his political career.