# Woo Won-shik

### Context

Woo Won-shik is a South Korean lawmaker who served as speaker of the [National Assembly](/organizations/national-assembly) from June 2024 until 2026.
The most useful way to place this record in context is to start with the institution or movement through which the
person could actually exercise influence, rather than treating visibility as equivalent to control. Woo, a veteran
progressive lawmaker, was elected speaker in June 2024 at the opening of a National Assembly dominated by the
opposition, while the governing People Power Party boycotted the first plenary vote. That baseline is supported by
[Yonhap News Agency](https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20240605004951315), which anchors the chronology and the relevant
office, legal proceeding, campaign or movement. The surrounding context matters because political and social
outcomes are usually produced by coalitions, institutions and external constraints as well as individual choices.
Woo held a farewell press conference in May 2026, marking the end of his speakership; descriptions that call him the
current speaker after that point are outdated. A second source, [Reuters
Connect](https://www.reutersconnect.com/item/south-korean-national-assembly-to-vote-on-president-yoons-impeachment-motion/dGFnOnJldXRlcnMuY29tLDIwMjQ6bmV3c21sX1JDMkNLQkFRNVc4Rg),
helps distinguish the durable part of the record from later interpretation or reputation.

### Record

The documented record has two especially important strands. First, Woo, a veteran progressive lawmaker, was elected
speaker in June 2024 at the opening of a National Assembly dominated by the opposition, while the governing People
Power Party boycotted the first plenary vote. Second, His speakership became nationally consequential during the
constitutional crisis surrounding President Yoon Suk Yeol’s December 2024 martial-law declaration and the ensuing
impeachment process, when parliamentary procedure and access to the chamber carried exceptional importance. Read
together, these events identify where Woo Won-shik had direct agency and where the person operated through a larger
institution, coalition, court, company, union or movement. [Yonhap News
Agency](https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20240605004951315) supports the first strand, while [Reuters
Connect](https://www.reutersconnect.com/item/south-korean-national-assembly-to-vote-on-president-yoons-impeachment-motion/dGFnOnJldXRlcnMuY29tLDIwMjQ6bmV3c21sX1JDMkNLQkFRNVc4Rg)
supports the second. That distinction prevents over-attribution: holding a title can create leverage, but it does
not mean every outcome during a tenure was personally authored. At the same time, formal limits do not erase
responsibility for decisions, testimony, organizing, bargaining or public advocacy that the evidence connects
directly to Woo Won-shik.

## Dated facts

_No published facts on this page yet._

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/people/woo-won-shik