Sung Jae-gi (1967 - 2013) was a South Korean activist and writer who became the public face of the men's rights movement in South Korea. [1] He founded the advocacy group Man of Korea and campaigned on issues including compulsory military service, divorce and custody law, and the country's gender ministry, positions that made him a polarising figure in Korean public debate. [2]
Early life and education
Sung was born on 11 September 1967 in Daegu, South Korea. He studied at Yeungnam University, and in the years before he became a full-time activist he worked in business and lectured publicly. [1]
Activism
Sung came to national attention in the 2000s as an advocate of masculism, arguing that South Korean men bore disproportionate legal and social burdens, particularly through mandatory military conscription and through family law provisions he considered weighted against fathers. He was a persistent critic of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and called for its abolition. [2]
In 2008 he established Man of Korea, which became the country's most visible men's rights organisation. Through the group he organised public demonstrations, gave frequent television and radio interviews, and published writing on gender and social policy. His confrontational style and his debates with feminist commentators made him a widely recognised and contested figure, and his positions drew both a committed following and sustained criticism. [1]
Financial difficulties and death
Man of Korea operated under chronic funding pressure, and Sung repeatedly appealed for donations to keep the organisation running. On 26 July 2013, during a publicised fundraising event, he jumped into the Han River in Seoul and did not resurface; his body was recovered several days later. [1] He was 45.
Legacy
Sung's death drew substantial media coverage in South Korea and prompted renewed debate about the men's rights movement he had led. [3] He remains the reference point for discussion of masculism in the country, and his campaigns anticipated arguments about gender, conscription and family law that have continued to feature in South Korean politics.
