Choi Bae-geun
Choi Bae-geun is a South Korean economist, educator and politician who served as the president of the Platform Party, along with Woo Hee-jong.
Career
He studied economics at Konkuk University and University of Georgia. He has been lecturing at Konkuk University since 1990. He has been involved in various organisations, including People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation and so on. In 2004, he was briefly a columnist of Hankyoreh.In 2007, he became one of the co-Presidents of the Onward Korea, a political organisation that never became an official political party. He later joined the Our Future but quit later. In 2020, he founded a new political party, named the For the Citizens, along with Woo Hee-jong. He resigned on 16 April, whereas Woo remained till the party was merged into the Democratic Party on 13 May.
Ideology
Choi is very critical towards the economic policies of the Moon Jae-in cabinet. In December 2018, he cited that Moon, who called himself as a "pro-labour" was forwarding a failed labour reforms. As an example, he added Moon's original manifesto to increase the minimum wage was not fulfilled. He also denounced that Moon's policies were more right-wing than Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye due to the several projects i.e. privatisation.In 2019, he harshly criticised Japan under Shinzo Abe, citing that Shinzo wants to establish a pro-Japan government in South Korea.