Park Sun-young is the President’s Special Adviser for North Korean Human Rights and a former member of the 18th National Assembly of South Korea. Mrs. Park was appointed to her current office by President Park Geun-hye in October 2012. As a member of the National Assembly from 2008 to 2012, Mrs. Park also represented the Liberty Forward Party as a spokesperson. In January 2011, she became the longest-serving female spokesperson of a political party in South Korea.

Mrs. Park is renowned for her activism for human rights in North Korea on many levels. She raised nationwide awareness of the issue by conducting a 78-day demonstration in front of the Chinese embassy in protest against the Chinese government’s repatriation of North Korean defectors. In May 2012, Mrs. Park founded a support organization, Mulmangcho (“Forget-Me-Not”), which assists North Korean defectors to resettle in South Korea.

She began her career as a reporter when she joined MBC (Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation) in 1977 during her senior year at Ehwa Womans University. She later earned her J.D. (Juris Doctor) from Seoul National University School of Law and became a professor at Dongguk University and Catholic University of Korea. She is married to Min Il-young, who is currently one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of South Korea.

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