Choi Hyung-woo, the former South Korean minister of home affairs who spent decades at the side of President Kim Young-sam, died at 3:30 a.m. on October 24, 2026, at the Central Veterans Hospital in Seoul. He was 91.
Student protester to lawmaker
Choi was born in Ulsan in 1935 and studied political science at Dongguk University in Seoul, where he led student protests as a representative during the April 19 Revolution of 1960 that toppled President Syngman Rhee. He was first elected to the National Assembly in 1971 for the opposition New Democratic Party, representing Ulsan, and went on to serve six terms.
“Right Hyung-woo”
With Kim Dong-young, Choi formed the inner circle of Kim Young-sam’s movement; the pair were known as “Left Dong-young, Right Hyung-woo.” After the military seized power in 1980 he was stripped of his seat and was repeatedly taken in by the Defense Security Command and tortured. He kept up the fight against military rule, joining the Democratic Mountain Climbing Club that Kim formed in 1981 and serving as secretary-general of the Council for the Promotion of Democracy in 1985.
In government
When Kim’s party joined the 1990 three-party merger that created the Democratic Liberal Party, Choi became minister of political affairs. After Kim took office as president in 1993, leading South Korea’s first civilian government in three decades, Choi served as the party’s secretary-general and as minister of home affairs. He was spoken of as a leading ruling-party contender for the 1997 presidential election, but a stroke that year forced him to step back from frontline politics. He is survived by his wife, Won Young-il, two sons and two daughters, and will be buried at the National April 19th Democracy Cemetery.