Pragmatic and flexible, new Saenuri Party leader Hwang Woo-yea is said to defy stereotypical categorizations of Korean politicians.

Hwang, 65, has a long conservative political history, coming into his fifth term on the ticket of the right-wing party, but has also supported some key progressive ideas, including a college tuition cut.

He is considered calm and moderate, yet has shown charisma when breaking deadlocks among factions or parties, most recently over the contentious National Assembly Act aimed at curbing parliamentary violence.

Hwang’s unassuming leadership quality emerged last May, when he emerged from near-obscurity to be elected floor leader over strong rivals representing the pro-Lee Myung-bak group.

Hwang scored a landslide win on Tuesday to lead the party through the vital period ahead of the presidential election.

His triumph was attributed to support from younger and reform-minded party members and was seen as representing their desire to break away from the rivalry between the pro-Park Geun-hye and pro-Lee groups.

“We will invest all our strength to uphold the spirit of the people and the party to make it a party of democracy, the whole nation and the people,” Hwang said at the first Supreme Council meeting on Wednesday.

Apparently aware of daunting tasks ahead of him, Hwang said holding a fair primary for the presidential nomination was one of the most urgent assignments.

“More than anything, I will make it a prioritized task to promptly formulate a primary system and lay the ground for the presidential election,” Hwang said.

The election of Hwang, who had a landslide win against eight other contenders at the national convention, was widely anticipated.

Although he is friendly with Saenuri presidential frontrunner Park Geun-hye after having shared the leadership over the past year, he was considered neutral enough by the rival pro-Lee Myung-bak faction as well.

Even the opposition party welcomed his win.

“Hwang is relatively reasonable among Saenuri Party members. I believe we will have good rapport as counterparts in the future,” former Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan, who is running for the chairmanship of the main opposition Democratic United Party, told reporters on Tuesday.

Hwang was the first executive of the conservative party to pay his respects at the grave of late liberal President Roh Moo-hyun last year as the floor leader-cum-acting-chairperson.

Hwang, born and raised in Incheon, had been a judge for 20 years before becoming a politician. He received bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Seoul National University’s School of Law. He passed the state bar examination in 1969 and studied constitutional law at the Philipp University of Marburg in Germany and Harvard University in the U.S.

He served as the judge at Seoul Central District Court and the Seoul High Court among others, and as the chief judge for Chuncheon and Jeju District Court. He furthered his expertise on the Constitution as the chief constitutional researcher at the Constitutional Court in the late 1980s.

Hwang became acquainted with Lee Hoi-chang, then-chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection, when he worked there as commissioner between 1993 and 1996. He entered politics by being named the chief of staff for Lee in his campaign for the 15th general elections in 1996.

Hwang won his first parliamentary seat as a proportional representative the same year on the ticket of the Grand National Party, the precursor to the Saenuri Party. He then won in his constituency of Yeonsu, Incheon for the next consecutive four terms, including the upcoming 19th Assembly. In-house, he was deputy chief policymaker in 2002 and secretary general in 2006, during which he helped manage the presidential primary for the 2007 presidential race.

Hwang is known as a devout Christian and has headed the National Assembly’s Human Rights Forum for more than 10 years, with an interest in North Korean human rights issues.

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)