Kim Boo-kyum

Kim Boo-kyum (Hangul: 김부겸; Hanja: 金富謙; born 1 December 1956^{[lower-alpha 1]}) is a South Korean politician who is presently a Minjoo Party member-elect of the National Assembly for Suseong, Daegu. He was formerly the member for Gunpo between 2000 and 2012, first for the Grand National Party and then, from 2003,^[2] the liberal Uri Party and its successors. In the 2016 parliamentary election in Daegu, Kim defeated his Saenuri opponent Kim Moon-soo in a 62.5 percent landslide, marking the first time a member of a liberal party had been elected in that city since 1985.^[3] Kim had earlier stood for mayor of Daegu in the 2014 local elections, and received 40 percent of the vote, a number seen at the time as unusually large in the conservative stronghold. He stated in 2014 that he hoped to "overcome the barrier of regionalism".^[4]

Kim is considered a centrist.^[5] As a member of the Grand National Party he pressed for reform in the party,^[6] and when he defected from the party in 2003 he cited the need "to unify the nation ... and to root out regionalism".^[7] A 2008 U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks described Kim as a "reasonable progressive lawmaker" representing a "centrist platform",^[8] and as a member of the Supreme Council of the Democratic United Party in 2012 he defended centrist members of the party from deselection.^[9] Commentators have named Kim a potential candidate in the 2017 presidential elections.^[4][10]

Kim was admitted to study political science at Seoul National University in 1976,^[11] but was expelled for taking part in protests against the Yushin Constitution in 1977, before being readmitted and expelled again for violating martial law in 1980. He was later reinstated a second time, and received his degree in 1987.^[12]

Kim's daughter, Yoon Se-in (born Kim Ji-su), is a television actress.^[13] Yoon campaigned for Kim in the 2012 parliamentary election^[14] and the 2014 mayoral race,^[15] but was unable to in 2016.^[16]

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