63 Facts About Ahn Cheol-soo

Ahn Cheol-soo is a member of the National Assembly as part of the conservative People Power Party.

Ahn Cheol-soo was chairman of the board and Chief Learning Officer of AhnLab until September 2012, and remains the company's largest stakeholder.

Ahn Cheol-soo was considered a left-wing politician when he entered politics in 2012, then considered a centrist politician by his 2017 presidential bid, and is considered a right-wing politician.

Ahn Cheol-soo made his first official entry into politics as an independent candidate in the 2012 South Korean presidential election, polling strongly before dropping out and endorsing the ultimately unsuccessful campaign of Democratic Party candidate Moon Jae-in.

Ahn Cheol-soo ran in the 2018 and 2021 elections for mayor of Seoul.

In 2014, Ahn Cheol-soo became one of the co-founders and co-leaders of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, now known as the Democratic Party of Korea, before stepping down from party leadership after a few months and then defecting from the party in 2015.

Ahn Cheol-soo was born on 26 February 1962, in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, while his father was on military service there; he subsequently moved with his family to Busan, where he grew up.

Ahn Cheol-soo was not an academic child but had academic hobbies such as reading.

Ahn Cheol-soo became the youngest chief of professors at Dankook University medical college at age 27, marking his first career milestone as a medical doctor.

Ahn Cheol-soo soon began working on his own antivirus software after a virus began mass infecting computers in Korea.

Ahn Cheol-soo was victimized by the same virus and reverse engineered the virus to erase it from his disk drive.

The program he wrote to get rid of the virus was eventually called "Vaccine" which Ahn Cheol-soo gave away for free.

Ahn Cheol-soo had previously attempted to distribute V3 via Samsung's brand though Samsung rejected Ahn Cheol-soo's offer.

Ahn Cheol-soo, not knowing how to run a business at first, struggled for the first several years.

Whilst managing the company, Ahn Cheol-soo was attempting to get a master's degree in engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1997.

Ahn Cheol-soo eventually received a $10 million offer from US software giant, McAfee and Ahn Cheol-soo met with John McAfee personally.

Ahn Cheol-soo resigned as CEO in 2005 and served as chairman of the board until 2012.

Ahn Cheol-soo became an outside director of POSCO in 2005, and from 2010 to 2011 was chairman of the company.

Ahn Cheol-soo was awarded an Executive Master of Business Administration degree from the Wharton School in 2008.

Ahn Cheol-soo then became a professor at KAIST in 2008, and later in the beginning of 2011 became the Dean of the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology at Seoul National University.

Since 2006, Ahn Cheol-soo had been offered places in the main political parties but was constantly denied any chance to run as an independent due to opposing factions.

In early September 2011, speculation spread that Ahn Cheol-soo would enter politics by competing in the 26 October Seoul mayoral by-election.

Ahn Cheol-soo eventually made an announcement, denouncing the opposition and ruling party and saying he was not sure on his candidacy, deciding to watch the polls before making a choice though he shared the sentiment that he felt like it'd take a lot of work to help Seoul, saying "ten years of work" would be needed to help the city.

Analysts stated that if positioned as an independent, Ahn Cheol-soo would attract a degree of support from those disaffected by mainstream political parties in the wake of corruption allegations and continuing policy failures.

Ahn Cheol-soo alluded to standing as a presidential candidate in his 2012 book Thoughts of Ahn Cheol-Soo.

On 19 September 2012, at 3 pm Korea Standard Time, Ahn Cheol-soo held a press conference and announced his intention to run for the 2012 presidential election.

On 11 March 2013, Ahn announced that he would run for a seat in the National Assembly of South Korea as an independent candidate in the by-election in the district of Seoul Nowon District C He won the election on 24 April, entering his first elected office.

On 26 March 2014 while the party was in the process of being set up, Ahn Cheol-soo merged his faction with the liberal Democratic Party to form the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, becoming co-chairman of the new party alongside Kim Han-gil.

Ahn Cheol-soo remained in the NPAD, but came into increasing conflict with Moon Jae-in, who had taken over sole leadership of the party after his resignation, and the "pro-Roh" faction that Moon represented.

In December 2015, Ahn Cheol-soo issued an ultimatum to Moon demanding that a convention be held at the beginning of 2016 to elect a new party leader.

Ahn Cheol-soo then left the NPAD along with a range of other lawmakers opposed to Moon, including Kim Han-gil.

Moon resigned as leader after Ahn Cheol-soo's defection, describing his experience as "a series of difficult days without a single one of respite".

Ahn Cheol-soo positioned the new People Party as an anti-establishment centrist force, attracting support from both political wings.

Ahn Cheol-soo labeled the remaining NPAD "anachronistic progressives", and accused contemporary Korean politicians of lacking policies beyond "short-term gimmicks".

Ahn Cheol-soo was credited for the victory, which was seen as giving him a position as kingmaker and support for contesting the presidential elections in the following year.

Ahn Cheol-soo was widely known to be a likely contender for the 2017 South Korean presidential election.

Ahn Cheol-soo was selected as the People Party's nominee, defeating Sohn Hak-kyu and Park Joo-sun.

On 29 January 2020, Ahn Cheol-soo founded the People Party as a splinter group from the Bareunmirae Party.

Ahn Cheol-soo cited disagreement with party leader Sohn Hak-kyu as his reason for leaving.

Ahn Cheol-soo has continued to act as its leader since its founding.

Ahn Cheol-soo was able to treat patients because he had continued to maintain his doctor's medical license.

In December 2020, it was reported that Ahn Cheol-soo intended to run again in the upcoming 2021 by-election to become mayor of Seoul.

Ahn Cheol-soo officially registered as a candidate, but after he lost to Oh Se-hoon in an opinion poll, Ahn Cheol-soo conceded and withdrew in an effort to unify the opposition camp.

On 1 November 2021, Ahn Cheol-soo announced his candidacy in the 2022 presidential election.

On 3 March 2022, six days before the presidential election, Ahn Cheol-soo dropped out of the 2022 presidential race.

On 8 May 2022, Ahn Cheol-soo declared his bid in the June 2022 South Korean by-elections, running for the Seongnam Bundang District A vacant seat in the National Assembly.

In 2023, Ahn Cheol-soo declared his intention to run for the leadership of the People Power Party.

Ahn Cheol-soo called on Yoon to step down previously, and stated he would vote for impeachment unless Yoon resigned no matter his affiliation.

Ahn Cheol-soo, who said he was criticized by the party for his vote, said that "The idea that a president responsible for upholding the constitution of the world's 10th largest economy would stage an unconstitutional coup is beyond imagination".

Four days after former President Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from office by the Constitutional Court, Ahn Cheol-soo declared his candidacy to run in the snap 2025 presidential election on 8 April in Gwanghwamun Square.

Ahn Cheol-soo expressed support for National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik's proposal for constitutional amendment referendum that would strengthen the power of the legislature, but questioned whether it would be logistically possible to hold such a referendum simultaneously with the presidential election; Ahn proposed holding the referendum the following year instead.

Ahn Cheol-soo said he offered broad moderate appeal, touting his personal character and diverse career experience during the primary campaign.

Ahn Cheol-soo advised acting President Han Duck-soo not to run for President.

Ahn Cheol-soo said his run was motivated by "a sense of crisis" he had felt and the emergence of cutting-edge technologies related to artificial intelligence.

In September 2012, Ahn Cheol-soo visited the graves of Syngman Rhee, Park Chung Hee, and Kim Dae-jung.

Ahn Cheol-soo stated at the time that it would be "hypocritical to paint half the people as enemies and at the same time call for 'unity".

Ahn Cheol-soo has been considered "more palatable for conservative voters" in part due to his business background.

Ahn Cheol-soo has said that, if elected President, he would work with opposition lawmakers and form personal relationships, citing inspiration from how President Barack Obama negotiated with the opposition Republican Party in the United States.

Ahn Cheol-soo was among the first who opposed the American deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, commonly referred to as THAAD, alongside Moon Jae-in.

Ahn Cheol-soo has stated he opposes the legalization of same-sex marriage, although in a more detailed article on broadcasting network SBS' website, he said that same-sex marriage needs to be achieved through social discussion.

Ahn Cheol-soo owns 37.1 percent of AhnLab shares, and as of 9 December 2011, the value of the shares to be donated is about 250 billion won.

In 1988 Ahn Cheol-soo married Kim Mi-kyung, who is currently a professor at the Seoul National University College of Medicine.

Ahn Cheol-soo competes in marathons, and has participated in the Seoul International Marathon six times, as of 2025.