KOREA WHO

Lee Jae-myung ("이재명" in Korean) is the 21st President of the Republic of Korea.

He was elected president in the early presidential election held on June 3, following the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk-yeol. His top priorities are ending the internal unrest and overcoming the economic crisis.

Born on December 22, 1964, in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, he was the fifth of seven children.

He passed qualification exams for both middle and high school, then graduated from the Department of Law at Chung-Ang University.

After passing the 28th bar exam, he worked as a human rights lawyer and entered politics through his involvement in a campaign to establish Seongnam City Medical Center.

He joined the Uri Party and ran for mayor of Seongnam but lost. He later served as a senior deputy chief of staff to presidential candidate Chung Dong-young, and although he was strategically nominated to run in Bundang A District in Seongnam during the general election, he was unsuccessful.

He ran again in the 5th local elections, won the mayoral seat in Seongnam, and was re-elected for a second term.

In the 7th local elections, he ran as the Democratic Party's candidate for governor of Gyeonggi Province and won.

In the 2022 Democratic Party presidential primary, he defeated former party leader Lee Nak-yon to become the nominee but lost the presidential race to Yoon Suk-yeol, the candidate of the People Power Party.

He was later elected in a by-election for the Gyeyang B District in Incheon and became party leader.

After winning a seat in the April 2024 general elections, he was re-elected as leader of the Democratic Party.

In April 2025, he stepped down from the party leadership to run in the 21st presidential election and was elected President of the Republic of Korea on June 4 of the same year.

#LeeJaeMyung #SouthKoreaPresident #KoreanPolitics #DemocraticParty #PresidentialElection #YoonSukYeol #SeongnamMayor #GyeonggiGovernor #Election2025 #KoreanHistory