Simply 3 years after directly losing the governmental election to conservative Yoon Suk Yeol, Lee Jae Myung has actually emerged, phoenix-like, as the brand-new leader of South Korea.
Such a possibility appeared not likely till a couple of months earlier as the leader of the liberal Democratic Celebration came to grips with a raft of legal difficulties and scandals.
However after Yoon made a messed up effort to put South Korea under martial law in December and, as a repercussion, was impeached out of workplace, Lee forecasted himself as a protector of the democratic order and began to acquire in public surveys.
Now Lee is poised to end up being the next South Korean president, exit surveys revealed, with the 61-year-old set to be successful Yoon in a deeply polarised and politically tired country.
His increase to the cusp of power, however, likewise raises a vital concern: is he the consistent hand South Korea requires when the corruption examinations and abuse of power accusations versus him are specific to cast a shadow over his presidency?
Lee, explained by his consultants as a “gladiator in a fit”, moved rapidly into the spotlight as he strongly countered Yoon’s dreadful martial law decree. Throughout the crisis in late 2024, he climbed up onto the fence of the National Assembly constructing to avert the president’s guard and recorded the mayhem on a livestream.
Experts stay sceptical about his capability to supply the steady management the nation requires. While he campaigned as a pragmatist concentrated on domestic concerns, his record of confrontational politics, continuous legal difficulties and polarising rhetoric raise questions about his capability to join a divided country.
” Lee seems holding the lead versus his primary conservative competitor. His legal issues cast a shadow, and depending upon advancements, South Korea’s political management issues might continue even if he wins the election,” Naoko Aoki, political researcher at RAND, informed The Independent previously.
Yoon’s martial law statement developed months of political instability, setting off a wave of public discontent with his Individuals Power Celebration that Lee looked for to trip into the leading area.
Individuals Power Celebration’s Kim Moon Soo regularly tracked in surveys in spite of forecasting himself as a moderate taking on the “precursor of beast politics and dictatorship”, as he has actually explained Lee. Kim understood the requirement to bring in the centrist vote if he were to have any possibility versus the liberal frontrunner.
Sojin Lim, co-director of Korean Research studies at the University of Central Lancashire, used a bleak image of the emerging political circumstance, arguing that the possibility of Lee winning was worrying. “It does not appear that any of the existing governmental prospects have the possible to be reliable leaders in South Korea, especially in dealing with the numerous obstacles the nation deals with both locally and worldwide,” she informs The Independent
” When it comes to Lee, the outlook appears a lot more worrying, offered his previous management design and the continuous legal cases versus him,” he includes.
” His technique has actually frequently been confrontational instead of conciliatory, which might not line up with the consensus-building management South Korea urgently needs.”
Lee has actually placed himself as a practical leader, promoting for policies that interest a broad electorate. His propositions, dealing with require minimizing governmental powers after Yoon’s actions, consist of impacting constitutional modifications to have a two-term presidency, a run-off election system, and parliamentary election of the prime minister.
He likewise intends to reduce the work week, raise the retirement age, and fight the population crisis with real estate and tax advantages for households.
Lim states what sets Lee apart is his populist platform, centred on extensive well-being promises like a universal fundamental earnings which interest financially dissatisfied citizens however danger deepening existing political departments.
The liberal leader’s “confrontational rhetoric and polarising management design might push away conservative factions, making bipartisan cooperation tough in a currently delicate political environment”, she discusses.
” To govern efficiently he would require to temper his populist program with inclusive policymaking and purposeful efforts to bridge ideological and/or political divides.”
Lee has actually looked for to resonate with more youthful citizens by wearing blue-and-red Reebok tennis shoes, colours of the nationwide flag. The using of those tennis shoes, which rapidly ended up being a sought after product after he began using them on the project path, was a mindful option, focused on highlighting among his promises to join South Korea’s liberal and conservative citizens.
Lee was born to a household of farmers in a remote mountain town in the nation’s southeastern area. He operated in chemical factories as a kid, suffering a commercial mishap that left him with a long-term injury to his arm and impaired hearing.
He has actually utilized his rags-to-riches story on the project path, raising his impoverished youth to concentrate on financial equality.
He matured to study law on a scholarship, passed the Bar in 1986 and worked as a human rights and labour legal representative for about 20 years.
He made his political launching in 2005 with the Uri Celebration, a predecessor to the Democratic Celebration, and was chosen mayor of Seongnam, south of Seoul, 5 years later on.
Going for greater workplace, he objected to and won the 2018 election for guv of Gyeonggi-do, South Korea’s most populated province.
Now set to lead the nation, Lee is looking for to reconcile his image as a polarising populist with the more determined, practical tone of his existing project.
” Lee is running as a pragmatist and his project propositions have actually been less polarising than in the past,” Aoki stated previously. “If he wins, the essential thing is whether he can stay with those positions.”
Handling relations with South Korea’s neighbours, specifically North Korea and China, is set to be among the essential obstacles for the inbound president.
Unlike Yoon, who pursued a more hardline technique towards North Korea, Lee has actually stated he would look for to alleviate stress by bring back a military hotline and a military contract dropped by Pyongyang in the middle of increasing bitterness in 2023.
“North Korea continues to stay a political focus throughout the marketing. No matter who wins in this election, they may have a minor departure from previous president Yoon Suk Yeol’s hardline technique on North Korea and China,” Dr Jagannath Panda, head of the Stockholm Centre for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs at the Institute for Security and Advancement Policy in Sweden, informed The Independent previously.
Aoki states Lee potentially extending an olive branch to Pyongyang is not unexpected. “His main platform does not consist of, for instance, grand gestures like inter-Korean tops or financial cooperation however rather concentrates on smaller sized trust-building steps,” she includes.
Now that Lee has actually won, he will need to handle a string of legal cases, consisting of a $1bn residential or commercial property advancement scandal from his time as mayor of Seongnam. In what is referred to as the “Daejang-dong scandal”, he has actually been arraigned on charges of bribery, corruption, breach of trust, and disputes of interest.
In another legal case, Lee was founded guilty last November of breaking the election law for making an incorrect declaration throughout an argument in the 2022 governmental project. An appeals court reversed Lee’s conviction, however the Supreme Court restored it and bought a brand-new sentence to be distributed. The sentencing, nevertheless, was held off till after the election to prevent affecting the result.
Another case is connected to a supposed plan to utilize an underclothing business to move funds to North Korea and assist in a check out to Pyongyang when he was guv in between 2019 and 2020.
Lee has actually rejected misdeed in all cases, calling them a “witch hunt” by the Individuals’s Power Celebration to weaken his political profession.