SDF

Kim Hyun-ah has made it her humble mission to inspire courage in ordinary citizens by supporting them in the living of their everyday lives.

After obtaining her undergraduate degree in urban planning, Hyun-ah served for two decades as a researcher at the Construction and Economy Research Institute of Korea, where she conducted research on housing, urban issues, and real estate. She advised the government as a subject expert, providing recommendations on housing policy, but she felt limited in her ability to turn her ideals into reality. She began considering participating firsthand in developing policies that would address problems at their root rather than treat their symptoms. This became the impetus for her entry into politics, and she came to serve as a proportional representative of the 20th National Assembly.

Hyun-ah’s transition from academia to politics included some trial and error. But she stuck it out, committed not simply to producing legislative outcomes but to creating legislation that would bring her long-held policy ideas to life.

One of Hyun-ah’s primary areas of interest has been the housing challenges facing young people in Korea today. Large numbers of young Koreans have given up on prospects for decent housing, resorting instead to living in semi-basement rooms, rooftop rooms, or gosiwon (very small, low-cost boarding rooms). In response to this problem, Hyun-ah helped draft the Special Act to Support Housing Security for Young People. She also led initiatives to introduce relevant reforms, including the Housing Lease Protection Act – which introduced mandatory financial guarantee insurance covering refunds of deposits for apartment leases (jeonse) as a protection against problems caused by oversupply of leasable apartments. She also helped introduce an amendment to the Act on Price Announcement of Real Estate to strengthen protections for real estate assets and promote transparent, fair, and just taxation.

In the latter half of her term as proportional representative, Hyun-ah was appointed to the National Assembly’s Education Committee. As part of the committee, she contributed to a revision to the Road Traffic Act that implements a Sleeping Child Check System to ensure that students get safely to and from school. The committee also created the Special Act on the Safety and Maintenance of Educational Facilities, helping bring legislative attention to the long-neglected issue of safe maintenance of schools and other places of learning.

With seven months to go until the end of her term, Hyun-ah still has much she hopes to and feels responsible to accomplish. One such goal is to make cities where residents enjoy and appreciate the livability of their neighborhoods, even if the prices of their homes don’t necessarily go up.

Hyun-ah aspires to be a politician with proven subject matter expertise, who puts her ideas into practice and dreams without limits.