After completing his political science and diplomacy degree, Chung joined "Hankook Ilbo", where he worked as a journalist and an editoral writer for about 15 years. He was involved in the International Department, the Social Department, and the Political Department of the press; he used to be the Deputy Head of the latter department. In the mid-1990s, Chung took crucial roles as a Washington, D.C. correspondent; in 1994, he flew to Port-au-Prince, Haiti in order to report the situation of a civil war. In 1995, he met Kim Jong-pil who was briefly staying in Washington, D.C. after withdrew from the then ruling Democratic Liberal Party (DLP) following an internal conflict with the then President Kim Young-sam. Chung advised Kim to establish a new Hoseo-based party, which is the Alliance of Liberal Democrats (ALDE). Since then, he was known as the "Top No 1 Founder of the ALDE". In the 1996 election, the ALDE became the 3rd largest party in the National Assembly, winning 50 out of 299 seats.