Cho Kuk

曹国　/　不明

American legal scholar

April 6, 1965 (age 61)　・　Busan, South Korea

legal scholar
politician
writer

My Take

Cho Kuk is one of those figures who makes South Korean politics impossible to look away from. A guy who grew up in Busan, crossed the Pacific to study law at UC Berkeley, then came back home to become a legal scholar, author, activist, and eventually a full-blown political lightning rod — that's a lot of life packed into one person. He served as Minister of Justice in 2019, but the tenure lasted only about a month amid a firestorm of controversy that dominated every news cycle in Korea. Love him or loathe him, his resilience is undeniable: by 2024 he had founded the Rebuilding Korea Party and was back in the thick of it. I find myself genuinely curious about someone who could absorb that kind of sustained public battering and keep pushing forward — whatever you think of the politics, that's not nothing.

Overview

Cho Kuk (Korean: 조국; born 6 April 1965) is a South Korean politician who is the founder and the current leader of the Rebuilding Korea Party. He previously held office as the senior secretary to the president for civil affairs from 2017 to 2019, as the minister of justice from September to October 2019, and as a member of the National Assembly of South Korea from May to December 2024.

1. Profile

Name (English): Cho Kuk
Name (Japanese): 曹国
Reading: 不明
Born: April 6, 1965 (age 61)
Zodiac / Chinese zodiac: Aries / Snake
Origin: Busan, South Korea
Blood type: Private
Height: Private
Agency: Private
Occupation: legal scholar / politician / writer / activist / jurist

2. Background

Elementary school: Private
Junior high: Private
High school: Hyekwang High School
University: University of California, Berkeley

3. Relationships

Spouse: Private
Children: Private
Parents: Private
Siblings: Private

4. Personality

Motto

Private

6. Links

Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/chokuk.jsd/
Xhttps://x.com/patriamea
Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9B%B9%E5%9B%BD