Photo: Jang Je-won (left) with Yoon Suk-yeol. Credit: Yonhap.
On April 1, former Assembly Member Jang Je-won 장제원 was discovered in a serviced apartment in Seoul, dead of an apparent suicide. Jang had been facing investigation over the alleged 2015 sexual assault of his secretary. The three-term lawmaker was among the last of his breed - a local lord who could cross the aisle when necessary, if only because he had the capacity to act in self-interest.
Jang was born in 1967 in Busan to father Jang Seong-man 장성만, a two-term legislator under the Chun Doo-hwan 전두환 dictatorship. Jang’s family owns three universities in the Busan 부산 area, making them power players in South Korea’s second largest city. Although Jang and his family were unmistakably conservative, having his own regional base of power allowed Jang to practice his own brand of politics rather than relying on the national party for money and votes.
Jang first won his seat in 2008 at the age of just 40, unseating a conservative incumbent in the Sasang-gu 사상구 district of Busan. After sitting out the 2012 General Election, he won his seat again in 2016 as an independent, again defeating the conservative candidate nominated by Park Geun-hye 박근혜’s Grand National Party 한나라당. Jang subsequently became one of the conservative leaders who led Park’s impeachment, cementing his reputation as an ideologically flexible centrist.
It was this reputation that enabled Jang’s relationship with Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열. As the Supreme Prosecutor 검찰총장 who imprisoned Park during the Moon Jae-in 문재인 administration, Yoon began his political career as an enemy to conservatives. Yet after Yoon turned heel by attacking then-Justice Minister Cho Kuk 조국 당시 법무부장관, Jang became one of Yoon’s first political patrons, enabling the prosecutor’s hostile takeover of the People Power Party 국민의힘.
Jang also engineered Yoon’s presidential election victory by negotiating a united ticket with An Cheol-su 안철수, pulling off a narrow victory over Lee Jae-myung 이재명. Jang then served as Yoon’s first chief of staff 비서실장, becoming known as one of “Yoon’s Core Officials” 윤핵관 together with Assembly Members Kwon Seong-dong 권성동, Lee Cheol-gyu 이철규 and Yun Han-hong 윤한홍. Acting as Yoon’s liaison to the party, Jang remade the PPP as a party of Yoon loyalists.
Jang’s fall was as precipitous as his rise. As Yoon became increasingly unpopular, Jang’s approval also suffered. It was not helped by Jang’s son, an aspiring rapper who was involved in a drunk driving incident. In the 2024 General Election, PPP’s new leader Han Dong-hun 한동훈 pressured Jang to hand his district over to a fresher face. When Jang resisted, the prosecutors began their work. A sexual assault allegation surfaced - highly credible, but also buried for a decade - and it ended Jang.