Park Geun-Hye was born on 2 February 1952, in Daegu South Korea, into a notionally average family, but her father was to become the 3rd president of the country,, and herself the 18th president, and who Forbes magazine ranks as the 46th most powerful person, and 11th most powerful woman in the world in 2015.
So just how rich is Park Geun-Hye? Sources estimate that Park’s net worth is $7 million – this may change somewhat, as her salary is to be increased to approximately $187,000 (converted from Korean Won).
Park Geun-Hye Net Worth $7 Million
Park Geun-hye’s father was Park Chung-hee, who became the president of South Korea from the time he staged a military coup in 1961 and was officially inaugurated in 1963, until his assassination in 1979, and her mother Yuk Young-soo. Park enrolled at Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea, and graduated with a BSc degree in electronic engineering in 1974. Subsequent studies at the University of Grenoble were cut short when her mother was shot and killed by a North Korean assassin whose bullet was intended for the president. Park was installed as the nation’s acting first lady, an enormous responsibility for a 22-year old recent college graduate. However, Park adapted well to her role as first lady, gracefully and efficiently greeting dignitaries and conducting affairs of state, among a number of other responsibilities. (In fact, Park has been involved in politics all her life.) No doubt this was the start of the growth of her net worth.
Five years after her mother’sdeath, tragedy struck again: Park’s father, President Park Chung-hee, was assassinated at a dinner by his intelligence chief in1979. After her father’s death, Park Geun-Hye continued to be active in public life by serving as a chairperson of educational and cultural foundations. Her net worth was steady, if not growing spectacularly.
Carrying something of a burden from her father’s dictatorial rule, Park Geun-hye was eventually elected to the National Assembly in 1998, and shortly after was appointed vice chairperson of the Grand National Party. (The GNP had been established one year earlier, unifying the financially struggling New Korea Party and the Democratic Party.) She was then chairwoman of the GNP between 2004 and 2006, and between 2011 and 2012 (the GNP changed its name to the “Saenuri Party” in February 2012). Her presidential bid in 2007 took her attention away from the GNP itself for sometime.
Park Geun-hye was elected the 18th President of South Korea in 2013, the first woman to hold the post, and the first woman in east Asia to be president. Of course this was a notable achievement, but the glow of it was not to last, and the years since have been difficult.
Overseeing the world’s 14th largest economy from the capital in Seoul, a mere 200 kms from her unstable and nuclear-equipped neighbor, Kim Jong-un, is only one problem, as Park also has the weight of the Sewol ferry tragedy as well as a massive bribery scandal on her hands. In 2015 it’s just over one year since the disaster killed more than 300 people, and with claims of government mishandling being rife since, Park formally expressed regret over prevalent, deep-rooted corruption in the government. Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo recently resigned; and her first PM, Chung ,Lee Wan-koo,Hong-won, quit after the ferry tragedy in 2014.
Like her approval ratings, the South Korean economy has continued on a downward trend with weak wages, consumer spending and export market. Despite these problems, Park recently signed a Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement (CKFTA), an environmental co-operation treaty with China and Japan, and has called for a Northeast Asia nuclear safety body.
In her personal life, Park Geun-Hye has never has been married, leading some to question her sexuality, but there is no substance to these suspicions. Park has received honorary doctoral degrees from the Chinese Culture University, in Taiwan in 1987; Pukyong National University and KAIST in 2008; and Sogang University in 2010.
