The Honorable Justice PARK Sang-ok was born in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province on November 13, 1956. He passed the 20th National Judicial Examination in 1978 while attending Seoul National University (SNU), College of Law. After earning his LL.B. degree from SNU in 1979, Justice Park began his prosecutorial career as a prosecutor in Seoul District Prosecutor’s Office in September 1984.

Justice Park held various positions as a prosecutor including a Manager of Criminal Intelligence Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, a Senior Prosecutor of Foreign Criminal AffairsDepartment at Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office, Director General of Criminal Trial & Civil Litigation Departmentat the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, Vice President of Judicial Research and Training Institute, and Chief Prosecutor of Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office. After his retirement, he worked in private practice. He was appointed as aJustice in May, 2015 while serving as President of the Korean Institute of Criminology.

During his term as prosecutor, he gained extensive knowledge of the international legal system, with an exemplary experience of providing lecture and writing a textbook on the U.S. criminal law when he was professor at the Judicial Research and Training Institute. Also as an anti-corruption specialist with global excellence, he made attendances to a number of international conferences on anti-corruption held at different countries and hosted an anti-corruption forum during his tenure as the President of the Korean Institute of Criminology.

He is widely respected for both his gentle personality and fair and principled attitude in dealing with cases.

In December 2003, Justice Park was awarded an Order of Service Merit Red Stripes. In addition, he authored a number of papers and commentaries, including "A Study on the Concept of Organized Crime and Effective Investigation" and "The Grounds of Revocation and Non-Existence of the Resolution of General Meeting of Shareholders."