Lee Jae-myung | A liberal in the Blue House

Lee Jae-myung
| Photo Credit: Illustration: Sreejith R. Kumar

South Korea’s newly elected President, Lee Jae-myung, brings to office a personal history marked by hardship and an agenda shaped by reform. Rising from a child labourer to the nation’s highest post, Mr. Lee assumes leadership in the wake of Yoon Suk-yeol’s impeachment, with the immediate task of stabilising a democracy shaken by political crisis and public distrust.

Born in 1963 in a poor rural family in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, Lee Jae-myung grew up as one of seven children in a home with no running water or electricity. At the age of 13, he abandoned school to work full time in an industrial plant to support his family. Mr. Lee, unrelenting, studied on his own and passed equivalency tests to return to school. He eventually earned a law degree from Chung-Ang University and passed the bar exam in 1986.

His early legal career was steeped in public service. Choosing to practise not in Seoul’s corporate offices but in Seongnam’s modest law offices, he gained local fame for defending labourers, tenants, and residents affected by urban redevelopment. Those cases weren’t just legal battles; they became the foundation of his political identity: anti-elitist, reformist, and unapologetically populist.

That ethos fuelled his entry into politics. After a failed attempt in 2006, Mr. Lee was elected Mayor of Seongnam in 2010. It was here that he launched initiatives that would later define his appeal: youth dividends, free school uniforms, and a local hospital for low-income residents. His confrontational approach to established interests often drew criticism, but also admiration. A decade after entering local politics, he had become a household name.

In 2018, Mr. Lee became Governor of Gyeonggi Province, South Korea’s most populous and economically critical region. During his tenure, he expanded housing welfare schemes and pushed for a pilot universal basic income programme.

By now, his growing national profile was matched by mounting scrutiny. He became entangled in a string of legal investigations related to land development contracts and allegations of abuse of power — charges he has consistently denied and characterised as politically motivated.

Political comeback

Mr. Lee first ran for the presidency in 2022, narrowly losing to conservative candidate Yoon Suk-yeol. Many believed his political future had reached its limit. But two years later, the very man who defeated him would inadvertently create the opening for Mr. Lee’s return.

The constitutional crisis that engulfed South Korea in late 2024 set the stage for one of the most dramatic reversals in the country’s political history. Then-President Yoon, in a stunning and ultimately self-destructive move, invoked martial law to suppress what he claimed were threats from “anti-state forces”. Instead of stabilising his administration, the declaration incited mass protests and an impeachment process that led to his removal from office.

It was against this backdrop that a snap election was called in early 2025. Mr. Lee, by then the leader of the opposition Democratic Party, ran a campaign presenting himself as both a victim of political injustice and a guarantor of constitutional restoration. His speeches, often delivered behind layers of security due to a previous assassination attempt, echoed with one theme: never again.

With voter turnout exceeding 77%, South Koreans delivered a decisive verdict. Mr. Lee secured just under 50% of the vote, comfortably defeating conservative rival Kim Moon-soo. It was a symbolic rejection of authoritarian overreach and a public embrace of democratic course correction.

As he enters the Blue House, the executive office of the President, a host of challenges are awaiting him. Mr. Lee has to tackle rising youth unemployment, housing woes, and stagnant wages. He has pledged a “fair and inclusive” growth agenda focused on welfare, price relief, and support for small businesses.

Internationally, he maintains Seoul’s strong ties with the U.S. while pushing for renewed inter-Korean dialogue. Yet, his most significant test may be uniting a fractured electorate and governing a democracy at a turning point.