Park Geun-hye

Park Geun-hye was born in on February 2, 1952, Taegu in North Gyeongsang, South Korea in the family of Park Chung-hee and Yuk Young-soo as their first child among three children. Her father was the 3rd President, military general and dictator of South Korea.

Her family moved to Seoul in 1953 where she spent her younger days in the South Korean presidential palace, the ‘Blue House’. In 1970 she graduated from ‘Sacred Heart Girls’ High School’ in Seoul.

She studied electronic engineering in ‘Sogang University’ and received her bachelor’s degree in 1974. She studied for a while in the ‘Grenoble University’ in France but following an assassination attempt on her father on August 15, 1974 in the ‘National Theater of Korea’, Seoul, that killed her mother, she returned to South Korea. The assassination was executed by Mun Se-gwang, a member of the ‘General Association of Korean Residents in Japan’.

Thereafter Park Geun-hye played the part of the first lady until 1979 when her father was assassinated on October 26, 1979 by Kim Jae-gyu, the chief of ‘Korean Central Intelligence Agency’ (now known as ‘National Intelligence Service’).

In 1987 the Chinese Culture University, in Taipei, Taiwan honoured her with an Honorary Doctorate in Literature.

For four consecutive terms starting from 1998 she served the ‘Korean National Assembly’ as a member of the ‘Grand National Party’, representing the constituency of Dalseong, Daegu.

She became the vice chairman of the ‘Grand National Party’ in 1998.

During the period 2004-2006 she twice became the chairperson of the party and played an instrumental role in election efforts that saw the party overcome several odds to achieve significant electoral gains in local elections. In the 2006 elections the party acquired majority. The media gave her the epithet, “Queen of Elections”.

In 2007 she lost to Lee Myung-bak as the presidential nominee of the ‘Grand National Party’.

In 2008 she received Honorary Doctorate in Science from ‘KAIST’ in Daejeon, South Korea and Honorary Doctorate in Politics from ‘Pukyong National University’ in Busan, South Korea.