Eun was born in Jeongeup, North Jeolla, but grew in Gwanak District of Seoul. Her father was a soldier. Later, in 2013, she recalled her childhood: "I used to live at Sillim-dong for around 20 years. At that time my family was likely rich, compared to most of my friends living at slums. I faced 2 impressive incidents, one was when I was a primary student. I pushed my friend as "playing", then her body involuntarily broke the wall and moved to the next door. For me it was quite shocking, because it was totally different from my home. Another incident was happened when I was a secondary student. During that time one of my friends lost her father, so I visited her house. I realised that her family rented a mud house." She earned a Bachelor's Degree of Sociology from Seoul National University. Initially, she desired to be a nun, but gave up as her parents didn't allow. During the early of 1990s, Eun was a member of Socialist Labour League of South Korea, along with Cho Kuk and Rhyu Si-min. This activity caused her to be detained in 1992, under the breach of National Security Act. She later mentioned she was tortured by Agency for National Security Planning and underwent several diseases. It made her to be selected as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. In 2004, she was hired to Korea Labour Institute and used to write various theses. This experience boosted her career, made her as one of the well-known labour experts.
Political career
Member of National Assembly (2012-2016)
Originally, Eun was not intended to be a politician. The first time when requested by Democratic Unionist Party, she faced her family's objections. After a long thought, she finally decided to join politics in order to "achieve her dream". Then, she ran 3rd in the DUP list for the legislative elecion in 2012, and won the seat. On 24 February 2016, she gained nationwide attentions after a speech for 10 hours and 18 minutes against the Anti-Terrorist Act, made it as the longest in South Korean history, where the former record was made by Park Han-sang. In the 2016 election, Eun ran for the Seongnam Jungwon District. She originally intended to run for this constituency during the by-election in last year, but lost to Jung Hwan-seok at preselection. After Jung was defeated by Shin Sang-jin of Saenuri Party, Eun could be selected as the candidate in this time. Nevertheless, after Jung was selected as the candidate of People's Party, Eun also lost to Shin. She subsequently accepted the result, but mentioned that she would continue her acivities.
Mayor of Seongnam (2018-)
After lost in 2016, Eun served as Secretary of Women and Family in the Blue House from 2017 to 2018. During the local elections in 2018, Eun was considered as one of the possible candidates for Seongnam mayorship. She resigned from the Blue House, and in 25 April, she was selected as the candidate of Democratic Party of Korea. She received 57.6%, and became the first woman mayor of the city. Moreover, she also became the sole woman mayor within Gyeonggi Province.
Controversy
On 26 April 2018, a person revealed that he was a driver for Eun, and was paid by a company connected to a mafia group. This controversy was reviewed by Unanswered Questions of SBS in 21 July. It was reported that her predecessor, Lee Jae-myung, was also implicated into the case. She was sued by the prosecution in 11 December. On 2 September 2019, Eun was fined for 900,000 won, and therefore is able to maintain her mayorship.
