Kim was born on January 28, 1957, in Eumseong, Chungcheongbuk-do.^[2] After completion of high school, he worked as a banker at Seoul Trust Bank (which is now Hana Bank) while completing his undergraduate degree in law at the evening school of Kookjae University.^[3]

He spent most of his time in government at Ministry of Economy and Finance and its preceding agencies where he began and ended his career in public service at.

In 1982 he passed the state exams for both legal affairs and administration and began working as a working-level administrator at its preceding agency. He took numerous economy and budgeting related roles in government ministries, Office of the President and presidential transition team.^[4]

He was recruited by three consecutive presidents. He was Lee Myung-bak's second vice finance minister and Park Geun-hye's minister for government policy coordination. Before being promoted to Moon Jae-in's first finance minister, he was the 15th president of Ajou University for two years.^[5]

Kim holds four degrees - a bachelor in law from Kookjae University, two master's in administration from Seoul National University and University of Michigan and a doctorate in administration from University of Michigan.

In August 2021, Kim announced that he would run for the 2022 South Korean presidential election. He became a candidate as an independent initially and then formed his own Party, the New Wave.^[2][6] Kim withdrew his presidential candidacy in March 2022 after reaching an agreement with the ruling Democratic Party's Lee Jae-myung on policy coalitions and joint government operations.^[7][8]

In June 2022, he was elected as the 36th governor of Gyeonggi Province during the 2022 South Korean local elections by a very narrow margin of 0.15%.^[9]

• Kim Dong-yeon on Twitter