PPP chooses Ihn Yo-han to lead its innovation committee

The People Power Party chose Ihn Yo-han, a medical school professor at Yonsei University, to head its innovation committee. [YONHAP]

The People Power Party (PPP) chose Ihn Yo-han, a medical school professor at Yonsei University, to head its innovation committee.

This is the first time any non-ethnic Korean citizen has been appointed to lead such a committee.

The PPP said it chose Ihn to lead the committee as he has a "deep understanding and keen insight" that would resolve regionalism and promote unity among people.

"We have to engage with strong determination with the mindset that we may perish if every single one of us does not accept changes," the PPP's leader, Kim Gi-hyeon, said. "These changes are serious."

Kim said the committee will have full autonomy, including who it will pick as committee members and the issues it will address.

The move comes after the PPP lost the by-election against the Democratic Party (DP) for the head of the Gangseo District Office.

The loss was interpreted as the party and President Yoon Suk Yeol's losing supporters with the parliamentary election just six months away.

If the PPP loses the election as it did in 2020, the presidential office could find itself in an even more difficult position to push its legislative agenda.

The DP currently holds 166 seats out of 298 while the PPP has 111 seats.

Ihn, also known as John Linton, was born in Jeonju, North Jeolla, and was raised in Suncheon, South Jeolla.

Ihn became a naturalized Korean citizen in 2012.

His family is known for having established multiple higher education and medical institutions in Korea and living in Korea for four generations.

His great-grandfather Eugene Bell was one of the first U.S. missionaries in Korea in 1895.

Ihn's grandfather, William Linton, Bell's son-in-law, was an important figure during his time.

He was Kim Koo's personal physician and an independence activist during the Japanese colonial rule of Korea (1910–1945).

William Linton also founded Hannam University in Daejeon.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]