Lee Jae-myung born 22 December 1964 is a South Korean politician serving as a member of the National Assembly and the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea. Lee was the nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2022 South Korean presidential election. He was the 35th Governor of Gyeonggi Province from 2018 to 2021.Born to a poor family in Andong, Lee became a factory worker after primary school and became disabled due to workplace injuries. Lee earned middle and high school equivalency diplomas and studied at Chung-Ang University, earning his law degree in 1986. As a human rights and labour lawyer, Lee organized with Minbyun and advocated for opening a new hospital in Seongnam.
Lee Jae-myung Facts
- Born : 22 December 1964 (age 59) Andong, South Korea
- Political: Party Democratic
- Spouse : Kim Hye-kyung
- Children: 2
- Education : Chung-Ang University (LLB) Gachon University (MPA)
- Occupation: Politicianauthor
- Profession : Lawyer
Lee Jae-myung Early life
Lee Jae-myung Lee was born on 22 December 1964 in Andong, the fifth of seven children. According to his first-grade report card, he was quite stubborn and his grades were normal, but he played well with his classmates and was courageous. Lee has stated that he couldn’t go to school on rainy or snowy days because the school was about 5 km (3.1 mi) away from his house and he had to cross a stream in the middle.
Lee in 1976
Lee grew up in poverty, and as a result of his family’s lack of funds, he would frequently forgo social activities and relied on the generosity of school faculty to attend field trips. He has cited fishing along the creek with his friends as being one of his favorite past times.
When Lee graduated from elementary school, the South Korean public school system did not give free education for middle and high school. His father spent most of the family’s money on gambling, and Lee’s family left Andong to find work
Like other children from poor families, Lee worked in a handmade necklace factory instead of attending middle school. After the necklace factory went bankrupt, Lee Jae-myung he moved to a company called Dongma Rubber. Lee at this time was not old enough to legally work in South Korea, so he worked under various pseudonyms. Lee injured his finger at Dongma Rubber.
After the accident, Lee left Dongma Rubber and worked for Daeyang Industry. In a second workplace injury, an industrial press crushed his wrist joint. The injury was untreated and caused a disability in his arm. Later, he was exempted from military service. He is a contemporary registered disabled person.
While working at Daeyang Industry, Lee Jae-myung Lee saw a group of students wearing school uniforms and he developed a desire to attend university. He enrolled in classes to pass the exams. He passed the high school entrance examination and earned a middle school diploma in 1978.Two years later in 1980, he passed the university entrance examination and obtained a high school diploma.[citation needed
Lee’s personal experience with crushing poverty inspired his political philosophy of ‘Eokgang Buyak’, which aims to curb the privileges and excesses of the powerful and support the poorest segments of society.
Lee Jae-myung Civil rights attorney
Lee Jae-myung Based on his entrance examination scores, Lee was accepted into Chung-Ang University’s College of Law on a scholarship.In 1986, upon graduating from college, he passed the bar exam and entered the Judicial Research and Training Institute for two years in order to join the bar. Lee opposed the authoritarian regime of Chun Doo-hwan.Lee originally intended to become a judge or prosecutor for the prestige and pay, but he was inspired by a lecture from Roh Moo-hyun to become a human rights and labour lawyer, like Roh and Moon Jae-in. He set up his practice in Seongnam.[citation needed
After opening his own lawyer’s office, Lee organized for labour and human rights with the lawyers’ organization Minbyun, working with the heads of labour counselling centres in Incheon and Gwangju. In 1995, he started a civic movement as a founding member of the ‘Seongnam Citizens’ Association’. He gained fame as a lawyer and social activism around the ‘Park View preferencial sale case’, where an investigation suggested corruption in the awarding of building permits and preferential sales of property in Bundang to government officials.further explanation needed
Around 2002 two general hospitals in Seongnam closed. Lee started a movement to build a new municipal hospital. The city council, which was then controlled by the Grand National Party, rejected the residents’ initiative ordinance in just 47 seconds. Lee’s group protested the council, and Lee was wanted for obstructing official duties of a public official. Afterwards, Lee realized that he could not change society through social movements, and he decided to enter politics.
Lee Jae-myung Political career
Lee Jae-myung On 23 August 2005, Lee joined the then-ruling Uri Party, a predecessor of the Democratic Party of Korea, and declared his candidacy for mayor of Seongnam. He ran as a candidate in the local elections in 2006, but was defeated by 23.75% of the vote due to poor public opinion about the Uri Party and Roh administration at the time.
In the 2007 presidential election, Lee Jae-Myung served as Lee Jae-myung the senior deputy chief of the Office of the Presidential Candidate Chung Dong-young of the Grand Unified Democratic New Party. In the 2008 general election, he applied for a nomination in the constituency of Seongnam Jungwon A, but was defeated by Cho Sung-jun in the primary election, and was nominated in the Seongnam Bundang A constituency. However, Lee suffered from another defeat with 33.23% of the votes under difficult circumstances, as the constituency was a traditional stronghold of an opposing party who had just won the Presidential election under Lee Myung-bak.
Lee Jae-myung Mayor of Seongnam 2010–2018
Lee earned his political reputation during his tenure as Seongnam’s mayor. As mayor, Lee Jae-myung he gained recognition for creating Seongnam’s social welfare program, widely regarded as one of the most comprehensive in the nation.
Lee Jae-myung He significantly improved the city’s financial situation.[citation needed] From 2010 to 2014, Lee announced a moratorium on payments of debt incurred from the developing Pangyo Techno Valley. While Lee was praised by some[who?] for this announcement, others criticized Lee and accused him of pulling a political stunt. Critics called the moratorium unnecessary because the city had never been forced to repay the debt immediately, and most of the debt had been largely covered by the significant 2.5-fold increase of the city’s municipal bond assets.
At the same time, he used the money saved to expand social welfare programs, such as offering a universal basic income for young people, free school uniforms and free postnatal care. These programs later became the foundation of Lee’s policy platform for a universal basic income.
Lee is noted for his decision to ban dog meat and to shut down dog slaughtering facilities in Moran Market. The dog slaughtering facilities had long been a subject of heated debate over their morality, the rights of animals, and their environmental impact. In 2016, Lee, an animal rights advocate, signed an agreement with shop owners that prohibited the display and slaughter of live dogs at the market. The city helped business owners transition to other businesses, but did not offer any direct compensation for their closure. Lee won reelection in 2014 and served another four-year term as Seongnam’s mayor until 2018.
Lee Jae-myung Governor of Gyeonggi Province
Following his loss in theLee Jae-myung presidential election, Lee ran for Governor of Gyeonggi Province, which encompasses much of the Seoul Capital Area and has a population of over 13 million.
Lee wearing a protective mask in October 2020
Lee received acclaim for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic as governor.In March 2020, when the nation’s first COVID-19 wave took place, following an infection cluster among followers of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, Lee visited the residence of the organization’s founder in Gyeonggi Province. The founder had refused to be tested for COVID-19 or to share church event attendance records for contact tracing. Lee warned the founder of the potential legal and administrative actions, and secured the founder’s cooperation.
Lee also announced a special order for all foreigners working in Gyeonggi Province to be tested for COVID-19 Seoul announced similar policies but changed them to recommendation after facing criticism. Lee’s special order resulted in finding 329 new positive cases.
Lee Jae-myung In February 2021, a year after the first Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) meeting was held to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, it was revealed that Lee attended only three meetings, while the average number of meetings attended by provincial and municipal leaders was 68.5. In response, Lee said in April 2021 that he used his time effectively in addressing more critical issues. Chung Sye-kyun publicly shared his frustration that Lee would not have made such a statement if he was well aware of the government’s efforts in containing the virus and vaccinating the public.Throughout 2021, Lee was partially at odds with the central government over his plan to provide COVID-19 disaster relief funds to all residents of Gyeonggi Province.[citation needed]
Lee frequently stated in office, “I have kept an average of 95 percent of my campaign promises while serving the public”, and “Even if I might have to experience a political loss, I believe in the collective intelligence of the public, and push forward on the right things in order to bring about results. That is my style”.
Lee Jae-myung Public image
Lee Jae-myung Unlike most South Korean liberals, Lee Jae-Myung often speaks favorably of former dictator Park Chung-hee. Lee Jae-Myung said on 2 November 2021, “President Park Chung-hee created the Gyeongbu Expressway to open the way for manufacturing-oriented industrialization,” adding, “The Lee Jae-Myung administration will build an ‘energy highway’ that will open a new future while speeding through the decarbonised era.” The Dong-A Ilbo, a conservative media outlet in South Korea, said Lee Jae-Myung’s state-led policies are closer to Park Chung-hee’s authoritarianism than left-wing populism based on social equality.ng evaluated Chun Doo-hwan’s economic performance favourably on 11 December 2021, he was criticized by South Korea’s liberal camp. The Justice Party’s Sim Sang-jung said of Lee Jae-myung, “You seem to have become a presidential candidate for the [conservative] People Power Party
while trying to differentiate yourself from the Moon Jae-in government”.[102] The People Power Party’s presidential candidate, Yoon Seok-youl, sarcastically said, “You can be our party’s presidential candidate”. In an editorial to The Hankyoreh, a South Korean centre-left liberal journalist who was critical of the dictatorship in the past strongly criticized Lee Jae-myung for forgetting his (liberal) “values” to win the votes of conservative voters.