Who is Lee Jae-myung, South Korea’s possible next president?
The Economist interviews the divisive progressive leader
WHEN SOUTH KOREA’S president, Yoon Suk Yeol, sent troops streaming into the country’s National Assembly on December 3rd, Lee Jae-myung turned on his livestream. Viewers watched on a shaky smartphone camera feed as the head of the country’s largest opposition force, the Democratic Party (DP), scaled the walls of parliament to help stop the attempt to impose martial law. That Mr Yoon thought he could use force to control modern-day South Korea, a wealthy democracy with a rich civic consciousness, is “just absurd”, says Mr Lee, who lost narrowly to Mr Yoon in presidential elections in 2022.
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This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “After the attempted coup, then what?”
From the February 1st 2025 edition
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