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Cho Kuk rejoins Rebuilding Korea Party after release from prison

Published: 21 Aug. 2025, 13:05

Cho Kuk, former head of the Rebuilding Korea Party, walks out of the Seoul Southern Detention Center in western Seoul on Aug. 15. [NEWS1]

Former party leader Cho Kuk officially rejoined the Rebuilding Korea Party on Thursday, party officials said. The party named him head of its think tank, the Institute for Policy Innovation, immediately upon his release from prison.

Cho’s political rights were restored following President Lee Jae Myung’s special pardon on Aug. 15 Liberation Day.

Party members completed the reinstatement process during a morning session of the Supreme Council, concluding his return 252 days after his loss of party membership following a final Supreme Court conviction on Dec. 12, 2024. The Supreme Court convicted Cho of forgery, bribery and obstruction of an official audit related to falsified academic documents used to help his children gain university admissions.

"The Rebuilding Korea Party would now walk together with him toward the complete end of internal oppression and make social rights a reality," Interim Rebuilding Korea Party Leader Kim Sun-min said.

Kim also nominated Cho as the party's head of the Institute for Policy Innovation. The institute’s board will formally approve his appointment at a meeting scheduled on Friday.

“Cho would unite the party’s research capacity and policy strategy under his leadership and deliver tangible change for citizens and party members,” Kim said.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY HAN YOUNG-HYE [[email protected]]