“As the winter was cold, the spring will be warmer,” said Lee Jae-myung, 61, a presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), who is running in the presidential election held on June 3 following the imposition of illegal martial law on December 3 last year. In his recently published memoir, ”In the End, the People Do,” he wrote, “There has never been a time in my life without crisis.” From his early days as a child laborer and civic activist to serving as Governor of Gyeonggi Province, Lee has mostly walked the path of an outsider. Having steadily moved from the margins to the center, whether he can overcome his weaknesses and become the country's chief executive will be decided in 38 days.

Lee’s political career began in 1989 when he opened a law office in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. After unsuccessful bids for Seongnam mayor and a National Assembly seat for the Bundang constituency, he ran again for Seongnam mayor in 2010 and was elected. He made headlines by declaring a moratorium, which was an unprecedented move for a local government, and cleared 457.2 billion won of debt within three years. Following his re-election in 2014, he introduced policies such as youth dividends and free school uniforms for middle school students. He also actively leveraged social media to engage the public, and a supporter group known as the “Finger Revolution Army” emerged as a core base of his political support.

Lee first gained national attention in 2016. When the Park Geun-hye administration decided to reallocate 500 billion won in revenue from six Gyeonggi Province municipalities, including Seongnam, to other local governments, he went on an 11-day hunger strike in protest. Later that year, the political scandal surrounding President Park erupted, and Lee became the first mainstream politician to publicly call for her resignation. Riding that momentum, he entered the DPK’s primary for the presidential election in 2017 but finished third behind Moon Jae-in and Ahn Hee-jung.

As Governor of Gyeonggi Province, Lee solidified his image as a decisive administrator during the coronavirus pandemic. He provided disaster basic income to residents and forcibly shut down facilities operated by the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a religious sect linked to the virus spread. His high policy fulfillment rate of over 90 percent became a significant political asset, and in 2021 he was elected as the DPK’s nominee for the 20th presidential election.

At the time, Lee’s image as an outsider remained strong, making the primary fiercely contested. His head-to-head battle with former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon left deep scars within the party. Additionally, the Daejang-dong land development scandal, which surfaced during the primary, continued to dog his campaign. The final primary, pitting him against other candidates who have never been selected as the party’s presidential candidate, was no easier. A close aide to Lee later said, “Falling into the Daejang-dong quagmire and failing to overcome it was the biggest cause of defeat.” In the 20th presidential election, Lee narrowly lost by just 0.73 percentage points.

However, just two months after his defeat, Lee ran in a by-election for the National Assembly seat in Gyeyang-gu, Incheon, in June 2022 and won, quickly returning to the political stage. In August of the same year, he was elected as leader of the DPK. As many pro-Lee figures entered the National Assembly following the 22nd general election, Lee firmly consolidated his grip on the party. Under his leadership, the DPK exercised strong veto power against the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. This strategy paid off with a landslide victory in the 22nd general election in April last year, and Lee was re-elected as party leader in August. He mobilized every possible means to keep the government in check, including pushing for bills that mandate a special counsel investigation into the death of Marine Corps Corporal Chae Su-geun and allegations involving former First Lady Kim Keon-hee.

Despite his political rise, legal troubles continued to haunt him. In November of last year, he received a one-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, for making false statements about not playing golf during an overseas trip with the late Kim Moon-ki, a former executive at Seongnam Development Corporation, and about preferential rezoning of the site of the Korea Food Research Institute in Baek Hyun-dong was done under pressure from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport. However, last month, he was acquitted in the appeals trial, significantly boosting his prospects for the presidency.

After the imposition of illegal martial law on December 3 last year, an atmosphere of " Lee Jae-myung inevitably becomes the president” took hold within the DPK. Lee played a critical role in gathering lawmakers to the National Assembly to vote for lifting the martial law. As he made his way to the National Assembly, he livestreamed on social media, encouraging citizens to gather around the National Assembly.

On April 10, Lee officially announced his candidacy for the 21st presidential election, declaring, “I, Lee Jae-myung, will be a great, best tool for the great people of Korea.”