He was a former professor of the Sociology Department and Graduate School of International Studies at Dong-a University from 1 September 1991 to 12 March 2021.
He was elected to the position in the by-election a day before that was provoked following the resignation of Oh Keo-don due to allegations of sexual harassment.
[3] While studying sociology at Korea University in 1980, he worked as an editor of the school magazine titled KU Culture (고대문화),[4] along with joining anti-government protests.
[2] During a protest on 13 May,[4] he ran away from the venue after he found the riot police firing tear gas, which later hit the wall of Plaza Hotel.
[2] Due to this, his legs were burnt, and his right eye was also injured which made him unable to see properly[4][5][6] even after wearing spectacles; as a result he was later exempted from the national service.
[4] In June 1991, he was briefly an editor of Monthly Mal, along with Jung Tae-in, who later joined the Justice Party and became a progressive economist.
In the early 1990s, Park was a founding member of the Popular Party;[2][6] others are Kim Moon-soo, Cha Myong-jin and Lee Jae-oh; all of them are now notable conservative figures.
[4] Park joined the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) instead of the de facto ruling Uri Party.[4][7][when?]
[4][6][15] On 26 August 2006, while he was a member of the Culture and Tourism Committee of the National Assembly, several sources reported that Park, along with Kim Jae-hong, an MP of the Uri Party, had visited an arcade game exhibition held in Los Angeles, United States from 13 to 15 September 2005, using the money from game industry associations.
[18] On 13 December, he was summoned by the prosecution for receiving 100 million won (£63,000) from the CEO of Andamiro and a gift voucher association.
In 2017, he became the commentator of the conservative panel of the Battle of Tongues, replacing the incumbent Jun Won-tchack[39] who became a newsreader of TV Chosun.
[40] On 18 July 2017, at Battle of Tongues, Park harshly accused the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) for not learning from its past mistakes such as the 2016 political scandal.
[45][46] In the general election, the UFP-FKP alliance only secured 103 out of 300 seats, the worst result as a major conservative party since 1988.
[47] The party president, Hwang Kyo-ahn, who contested for Jongno, was also defeated by the former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon.
[48] Park cited that the party lost about 30 seats due to hate speeches and defamatory remarks of its several candidates.
[50][51] On 29 October, Park officially rejoined the PPP, the same day when the former President Lee Myung-bak was sentenced to 17 years in jail.
[62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74] On 12 March 2021, Park posted on his Facebook that he had quit being a professor of Dong-a University where he had been working from 1 September 1991.
[75][76] Nevertheless, on 25 March, The Hankyoreh reported that his withdrawal from Dong-a University was shortly after he opened courses for a new semester.
[77] This movement provoked a public uproar; one professor who used to work together with Park condemned that "the students' rights to learn were trampled".
[77] The exit poll released shortly after the election on 7 April showed that Park was expected to obtain 64.0%, while the Democratic candidate Kim Young-choon could only receive 33.0%.
[84] His inauguration ceremony at the Busan Metropolitan City Hall proceeded with an online format[85] due to social distancing in order to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.
[95] JoongAng Ilbo reported 2 days later that Cho had already been having a daughter and a son with her ex-husband and then remarried Park in December 1999.