Park Wan-su

Park was born in Tongyeong on 10 August 1955.^[1][2] As a son of a poor peasant, he barely graduated from primary school^[1] and was unable to continue his secondary education.^[3] He has an elder brother and 3 elder sister.^[1][2]

After graduated from Masan Technical High School, Park used to work at Dongkyung Electronics.^[1][2][3] He then attended to Korea National Open University and Kyungnam University.^[1][2][3]

Park served as the mayor of Hapcheon from 1994 to 1995.^[4] When direct elections were applied for all mayorships in 1995, he then became the last indirect Mayor.^[2]

In 2002, he ran as an independent candidate for Changwon mayorship^[5] but lost to Bae Han-sung. After Bae's election was nullified in 2004, he joined the Grand National Party^[6] and was elected. He was then re-elected in 2006 and again in 2010. He also became the first Mayor of the united Changwon, after the city was merged with Masan and Jinhae.^[7]

Following the resignation of Kim Doo-kwan prior to the 2012 presidential election, Park contested Saenuri preselection for the South Gyeongsang governorship but lost to Hong Jun-pyo.^[8] In 2014, he resigned from the Mayor of Changwon and again contested Saenuri preselection, but was also defeated to Hong.^[8] During this time, he harshly criticised Hong with issues regarding Jinju Medical Centre.^[8]

Park was appointed as the President of the Incheon International Airport Corporation in October 2014 but resigned after a year in order to run for 2016 election.^[1] He was selected as the Saenuri candidate for Changwon Uichang and defeated Kim Ki-woon of the Democratic Party.^[9]

On 2 December 2019, Park was appointed as the Secretary-General of the Liberty Korea Party.^[3][10] After the party was merged into the United Future Party, he was re-appointed Secretary-General.^[11]

On 22 April 2022, Park won PPP preselection for South Gyeongsang Governorship.^[12]