Oh Se-hoon

**Oh Se-hoon** ( born 4 January 1961, Seoul, South Korea) is a South Korean politician. He became the mayor of Seoul  in 2021. He was also the mayor from 2006 to 2011. He was an unsuccessful candidate for President of South Korea in 2025.

## Education

When he was young, his family was very poor. He hasa said that he would need to finish his homework before sunset This was because it was very hard for his family to use electricity. After he graduated from high school, he entered Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. He studied Law. During his second year, he moved from HUFS to Korea University. In 1984, he passed the 26th Korean bar examination.

## Political career

Oh served the military as an officer soon after graduating from law school. After finishing his military service, he worked as a lawyer in Seoul for about 15 years. He appeared on television programs about law many times. That made him become very famous, so he campaigned to being a politician. In 2000, he was elected as a member of the National Assembly, belonging to Grand National Party. As a young politician, he tried to break and change the old and conservative image of Grand National Party. After completing the four years of his term as a member of the National Assembly, he went back to being a lawyer.

Though he had left the political world, he was still preferred by many people. He was even favoured as the next mayor of Seoul, because the former mayor Lee Myung-bak was running for the President. At first, he consistently denied running for the mayor of Seoul. But as he was considered the best candidate for the mayor in many polls, and as Grand National Party persuaded him to run for the mayor, he finally decided to run.

### As mayor

Even before the election, he always won in many polls. As a result, he got over 60% in the 2006 election and became the mayor of Seoul easily. In this election, he promised to remove Dongdaemun Stadium, redevelop about 50 towns, encourage people to learn English, and change diesel buses to natural-gas buses.

In 2010, he tried to be re-elected as mayor. He was expected to easily defeat other candidates again. But in the vote counting, he was about to lose. The gap between him and the second candidate, Han Myeong-sook was just about 0.6%.  He decided to quit after winning the election.

He was criticized because in his last 5 years in office the debt of Seoul tripled.

## Infobox (officeholder)

- **honorific prefix**: The Right Honourable
- **name**: Oh Se-hoon
- **native name lang**: ko
- **image**: Oh Se-hoon in June 2020.jpg
- **office**: Mayor of Seoul
- **term start**: 8 April 2021
- **predecessor**: Park Won-soon
- **term start1**: 1 July 2006
- **term end1**: 26 August 2011
- **predecessor1**: Lee Myung Bak
- **successor1**: Park Won-soon
- **office2**: Member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, National Assembly
- **predecessor2**: Hong Sa-duk
- **successor2**: Gong Sung-jin
- **term start2**: 30 May 2000
- **term end2**: 29 May 2004
- **constituency2**: Gangnam District, Gangnam 2nd (Seoul)
- **birth place**: Seongdong-gu, Seoul, South Korea
- **party**: People Power Party (South Korea), People Power
- **otherparty**: Bareun Party
Liberty Korea Party
- **spouse**: Song Hyeon-ok
- **children**: Oh Joo-won (daughter)
Oh Seung-won (daughter)
- **alma mater**: Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Korea University <small>(Bachelor of Laws, LL.B., Master of Laws, LL.M., Juris Doctor, J.D.)</small>
- **profession**: Politician
Lawyer
- **residence**: Seoul, South Korea
- **blank1**: Religion
- **data1**: Roman Catholic
(Christian name : Stephen)
- **branch**: Republic of Korea Army
Defense Security Command, Army Security Command
- **serviceyears**: 1988–1991
- **rank**: Jungwi (First Lieutenant)
- **signature**: Oh Se-hoon signature.svg


## Infobox (korean name)

- **rr**: O Sehun
- **mr**: O Sehun