Park had previously served as the President of the Student Council during schooldays and later became a secretary of 2 former MPs — Kim Geun-tae and Lim Chae-jung. After qualifying for the bar in 2012, he became a lawyer and handled several cases, including Lance Corporal Yoon case in 2014. Prior to be elected to the National Assembly, he served as the political adviser to Park Won-soon while he was the Mayor of Seoul in 2016, as well as the Executive Officer for Judicial Affairs of the Office of the President under the PresidentMoon Jae-in from 2017 to 2019.
While studying at Hanyang University, he had completed his national service at the Joint Security Area (JSA) from 1994 to 1997.[7] Prior to the 1996 election, North Korea had sent the armed forces to Panmunjom.[7] Regarding this incident, he said, "I have clearly seen the politicised fake national security."[7]
Student activist career
During the schooldays, Park served as the President of the Student Council for 3 times; firstly at Konghang High School (1989), then at Hanyang University for 2 other times — within the Faculty of Law (1998) and the universitywide (1999).[6][8] Shortly after elected the President of the Student Council at Hanyang University, he joined the South Korean Federation of University Students Councils,[3] a left-wing student organisation that was declared illegal in 1998.[9] He was wanted for this activities and could not return to home for more than a year.[3] Following his arrest, he was sentenced to 10 months in prison under the breach of the National Security Act on 15 February 1999.[10] He was pardoned on 15 August.[10]
Legal career
Park had passed the 1st National Bar Examination and was qualified for the bar in 2012.[11] The next year, he started his legal career, starting as a town lawyer in Gochon-eup, Gimpo.[6] He subsequently joined a law firm named LawTec, where he used to work for a year.[6] Then, he moved to Changjo and was involved until 2016.[6]
In 2014, following the Lance Corporal Yoon case, where the victim Lance Corporal Yoon was bullied and murdered, Park pled the family of the late Yoon.[12] Along with Chung Yeon-soon, he urged that the defendants should be punished for reckless homicide.[12] On 30 October, the defendants had been sentenced from 15 to 45 years of imprisonments, but for accidental mortality instead of homicide.[13] Park criticised the sentence, citing "they must be punished for murder on appeal".[13] Homicide was applied to the defendants during an appeal on 9 April 2015.[14]
On 22 June 2019, Park opened his own law firm in Gurae-dong, named Gimpo and Together With Park Sang-hyuk Law Firm (김포와더불어 박상혁 법률사무소).[6][8][4]
On 16 December 2019, Park announced he would run for Gimpo 2nd constituency in the 2020 election through YouTube and Facebook.[17][18]
On 17 February 2020, he was excluded from the Democratic preselection.[19] He criticised the party's decision and submitted an appeal in order to be a pre-candidate.[19] A week later, he posted on his Facebook that his appeal was accepted and was allowed to contest preselection.[20][21] While the other pre-candidates have ever convicted of driving under the influence (DUI) before,[19] Park emphasised that he does not have any criminal records related to DUI.[20][21]
After won preselection on 5 March,[22] Park faced a challenge from the incumbent MP and the United Future candidate Hong Chul-ho.[23] Despite the early leading,[24] on 15 April, the exit poll showed that Hong came closed to Park (Park: 49.6%, Hong: 48.7%).[25] However, Park received 53.83%[26] and was elected with a majority of 10,993.[27] Along with Kim Nam-kuk from the same party, he became the first MP graduated from a law school.[11]
