Kim Gi-hyeon (Korean: 김기현, born 21 February 1959) is a South Korean lawyer and politician who served as the Mayor of Ulsan from 2014 to 2018. He was the acting President of the conservativePeople Power Party (PPP) from 30 April to 11 June 2021.
Career
Kim Gi-hyeon was born in Sanha-ri, Gangdong-myeon, Ulju, South Gyeongsang (now Gangdong-dong, North District, Ulsan) in 1959.[1][2] He is the 4th of 6 children of Kim Byung-geuk, the former Member of the South Gyeongsang Legislative Assembly from 1960 to 1961.[2]
He attended to Busan East High School before studying law at Seoul National University.[3][4] After qualifying for the bar in 1983, he worked in various non-governmental organisations i.e. Director of YMCA in Ulsan.[3]
He was appointed the deputy spokesperson of the Grand National Party (GNP) in 2003.[3] In 2004, he ran for South District 2nd constituency and was elected.[3][4] He was re-elected in 2008 and 2012.[3][4] On 12 April 2014, he contested Saenuripreselection for Ulsan mayorship and defeated Kang Ghil-boo.[5] He resigned his parliamentary membership on 5 May in order to register his candidacy.[6] On 4 June, he received 65.42% and defeated the Justice candidate Jo Seung-soo.[7]
In 2018, Kim was again nominated the Ulsan Mayor candidate for the 2018 local elections.[11] Initially, he led on some polls[12] due to his high popularity. Nevertheless, he then came behind to the Democratic candidate Song Cheol-ho.[13] On 13 June, he finally lost to the Democratic candidate.[14]
On 30 April 2021, Kim was elected the new parliamentary leader of the People Power Party (PPP), defeating Kim Tae-heum, Kweon Seong-dong and Yu Eui-dong.[17] He also served as the acting party President until Lee Jun-seok was elected the new president on 11 June. He resigned as the parliamentary leader on 3 January 2022,[18] but returned to the position 3 days later.[19] On 29 March, he made his resignation without coming back to the position, in order to refurbish the party leadership.[20]
