Hong Moon-jong (Korean: 홍문종; born 26 May 1955) is a South Korean politician who served as the Member of the National Assembly for Uijeongbu 2nd constituency.[1][2] He also served as the Secretary-General of the Saenuri Party.[2][3] He is the son of the late former politician Hong Woo-jun.
Born at Yangju, Hong studied at Harvard University.[2] He started his political career when he entered to the Democratic Liberal Party (then New Korea Party aka NKP) in 1995.[3] During the general election in 1996,[3] he defeated Moon Hee-sang from the National Congress for New Politics (NCNP). In 1997, he left the NKP and joined the National Party - New (NPN) in order to endorse Lee In-je as the upcoming President. Hong stood as a nonpartisan candidate in 2000[3] despite his loss. He temporarily came back as an MP after the by-election in 2003, till he lost just after a year.
After involving several controversies,[3] Hong officially came back as MP in 2012.[3] He was then re-elected in 2016. As one of the politicians supporting ex-President Park Geun-hye,[2][4] he endorsed her as President in 2007.[3] He unsuccessfully ran as the parliamentary leader of the Liberty Korea Party (LKP) in 2017.[4]
In 2019, Hong announced to leave the LKP.[5][6] A minor political party named the Korean Patriots' Party elected Hong as the party president along with incumbent Cho Won-jin,[5][6] and the party officially changed their name as the Our Republican Party (ORP).
On 10 February 2020, Hong was sacked from the ORP after long-time conflicts with Cho.[7] He then formed the new party named Pro-Park New Party.[8]