Shin Jeong-hoon

Jeong-hoon Shin (Korean: 신정훈; born 6 December 1964) is a South Korean politician and former agrarian activist. He is currently a member of the National Assembly representing Naju and Hwasun, and serves as the Chairman of the Public Administration and Security Committee in the 22nd National Assembly. He previously served as the Mayor of Naju.

Shin was born on December 6, 1964, in Wanggok-myeon, Naju, Jeollanam-do. He graduated from Gwangju Inseong High School and received a bachelor's degree in Journalism and Broadcasting from Korea University.

In 1985, as a university student, Shin participated in the occupation of the Seoul American Cultural Center, for which he was imprisoned for three years.

After his release, he returned to his hometown of Naju to work as a pear farmer. He became a key figure in the farmers' rights movement, organizing the Naju Farmers' Association. He led the "Water Tax Resistance Movement" (Su-se refusal struggle), a protest against the agricultural water usage fees imposed on farmers, which eventually led to the abolition of the tax in 2000. During this period, he was imprisoned again for his role in the protests.

Shin began his political career as an independent candidate. He was elected to the Jeollanam-do Provincial Council in 1995 and re-elected in 1998.

In 2002, he was elected Mayor of Naju as an independent, defeating the incumbent Millennium Democratic Party candidate. He was re-elected in 2006. However, in 2010, he lost his mayoral position after the Supreme Court found him guilty of illegally providing subsidies to an unqualified agricultural corporation in 2004.^[1] He was later granted a special pardon in January 2013, which restored his eligibility to run for office.^[2]

Shin returned to politics in the July 2014 by-election, winning the Naju-Hwasun seat as a candidate for the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD).

In the 2016 legislative election, he ran for re-election but was defeated by Son Kum-ju of the People's Party. Following his defeat, he served as a special advisor on Honam affairs to the Democratic Party floor leader Woo Sang-ho.

In June 2017, he was appointed as the Secretary for Agriculture and Fishery in the Blue House under the Moon Jae-in administration. He resigned in March 2018 to run for the Governor of Jeollanam-do but lost in the party primary to Kim Yung-rok.

He made a comeback in the 2020 legislative election. After defeating former rival Son Kum-ju in the Democratic Party primary,^[3] he won the general election, reclaiming his parliamentary seat. During the 21st Assembly, he proposed amendments to the Public Service Ethics Act regarding real estate trusts.

In the 2024 legislative election, he was elected to a third term, defeating the Progressive Party candidate by a significant margin. He currently chairs the Public Administration and Security Committee.