SEOUL, April 10 (UPI) — South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung said Thursday he would run for president in the June snap election triggered by the removal of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol from office.
Lee, who resigned as chairman of the Democratic Party on Wednesday ahead of the announcement, is the strong frontrunner in most opinion polls. In a survey released last week by Realmeter Korea, 49.5% of respondents found Lee the most suitable candidate for president and he won by decisive margins in various hypothetical head-to-head matchups.
In an 11-minute video message announcing his candidacy, Lee said addressing income inequality and promoting economic growth would be his top goals when taking office.
“Our economy is in dire straits,” Lee said. “The government’s role is important, but for the past three years, the government has neglected the economy.”
He vowed to invest in science and technology at the government level, saying it had become prohibitively expensive for small businesses to keep pace with industrial development.
“Investment in advanced science and technology is important, but the problem is that the level of science and technology has become so advanced that individual companies cannot afford it,” Lee said.
On the foreign policy front, Lee stressed a pragmatic approach to international relationships. He said that Seoul’s alliance with the United States and the trilateral partnership with Japan — which Yoon championed — were important, but pledged to prioritize South Korea’s interests.
“The consistent principle is ‘the national interest of the Republic of Korea comes first,'” Lee said. “We will compete in areas where we compete, cooperate in areas where we cooperate and properly coordinate areas of conflict.”
Lee also praised the resilience of South Korea’s democracy, which faced its most serious test in decades when Yoon briefly declared martial law and was impeached in December.
A drawn-out deliberation process by the Constitutional Court sparked massive rallies on both sides of the deeply divisive issue. The court voted unanimously to uphold the impeachment on Friday, removing Yoon from office and prompting the snap election, which will be held on June 3.
“The greatness of South Korea’s democracy does not lie in the constitution itself, but in the greatness of the people who live within the system,” Lee said. “When oppressed, we do not submit, but rather overcome, and this time we resisted as well.”
Lee, who lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election by a razor-thin margin, is facing legal troubles of his own. Last month, a court overturned his conviction on an election law violation, but he is still facing criminal trials on charges including bribery and corruption.
The 61-year-old rose to national fame as a progressive firebrand, first as the mayor of Seongnam, a satellite city of Seoul, and then as governor of Gyeonggi Province, building a reputation as a hard-charging populist who was able to implement some of the country’s most ambitious social welfare programs.
In Gyeonggi, South Korea’s largest province, Lee launched a pilot basic income program for young adults that he was able to expand to all citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yoon’s ruling People Power Party said Wednesday it would hold a national convention on May 3 to choose a candidate, with potential contenders including Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo, Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon.
While popular with his base of supporters, Lee remains politically polarizing and had taken to wearing a bulletproof vest in public appearances leading up to Yoon’s impeachment verdict. In early 2024, he was stabbed in the neck during an appearance in Busan and underwent emergency surgery.
