Lee Jun-seok: How a Harvard engineer became the king of Korea's young men (2025)

Lee Jun-seok: How a Harvard engineer became the king of Korea's young men (1)

Lee Jun-seok, presidential candidate from the Reform Party, outlines his campaign promises during a press conference at the National Assembly in western Seoul on May 12. [YONHAP]

Lee Jun-seok from the splinter conservative Reform Party on Monday promised to bring a new start to Korean politics as the youngest presidential candidate.

In a news conference at the National Assembly in western Seoul on Monday, Lee said the Reform Party is capable of “enabling Korean politics to have a fresh start and ending the corrupted [ …] bipartisan system in Korea.” Of the 300 parliamentary seats, the main conservative People Power Party (PPP) and the liberal Democratic Party (DP) controls 278. Lee's Reform Party holds three.

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Lee barely meets the minimum required age to run for president, having turned 40 in late March, while many presidential hopefuls are in their 60s and 70s. He has called for Korea to “challenge itself with a spirit of the 40s,” citing former and late Presidents Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung who were in their 40s when resisting Park Chung Hee's military leadership, and has branded himself a “successor” to the latePresidents Kim Young-sam, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun,who refused to join coalition of three major parties in 1991.

But as the June 3 election approaches, Lee is streamlining his firebrand rhetoric away from the past and toward the future. Against veteran contenders from the nation's major conservative and liberal parties, will that strategy hold?

Who is Lee Jun-seok?

Lee Jun-seok: How a Harvard engineer became the king of Korea's young men (2)

Reform Party presidential candidate Lee Jun-seok, center, visits Yonsei University in western Seoul on May 12. His presidential campaign kicked off on the same day. [YONHAP]


Lee, former PPP leader, is the founder of the Reform Party, which has positioned itself as a centrist and moderate conservative party.

Lee graduated from Harvard University with bachelor's degrees in computer engineering and economics. He later ran a nonprofit educational organization for socially marginalized students.

At the age of 26, Lee entered politics as a member of the emergency steering council of the conservative Grand National Party, the predecessor of the modern PPP. Former President Park Geun-hye — interim chief of the party at the time — recruited him, leading to his nickname, “Park Geun-hye’s kid.”

Despite having Park's support, Lee did not stay loyal to her when she was ousted in March 2017 for corruption and abuse of power. At the 2021 PPP convention, during which he was elected as the party’s chief, Lee said Park’s impeachment was “appropriate.”

Lee helmed the PPP during the eighth local election in 2022, where the party won against the rival DP.

However, he faced a major setback after being accused of receiving sexual services as a bribe from a business owner in 2013 and attempting to tamper with the evidence. As the allegation surfaced, the PPP’s ethics committee suspended his party membership for six months in 2022.

His sharp criticism of former President Yoon Suk Yeol — calling Yoon a “wolf in sheep's clothing” — added a year to his suspension. Although the PPP lifted the suspension in November 2023, the party failed to fully embrace him, and he left it a month later.

Lee has made many brazen remarks targeting male voters in their 20s and 30s and become a figurehead for anti-feminism.

Last January, Lee founded the Reform Party and became its inaugural leader. In last year's April 10 general election, Lee was elected to represent Gyeonggi’s Hwaseong-B electoral district.

On Dec. 14 of last year, when the parliament impeached Yoon, Lee said he was taking “presidential candidacy seriously.” In March, he became the Reform Party's presidential candidate.

An alternative to the PPP and DP

Lee Jun-seok: How a Harvard engineer became the king of Korea's young men (3)

Presidential campaign banners for Democratic Party's Lee Jae-myung and Reform Party's Lee Jun-seok hang in Gwanak District, southern Seoul, on May 12. [YONHAP]


Lee, whose presidential bid is his first, is determined to complete the race without compromising with major blocs. He called the prospect ofmerging his campaign with that of 73-year-old Kim Moon-soo, effectively dropping out of the race and diverting his campaign's resources to the PPP candidate,“impossible”during his speech at the National Assembly on Monday, appearing to criticize the party for electing Kim, who had defended Yoon's brief imposition of martial law.

“The calling of the times of this presidential election is that presidential power should be replaced, not an exchange of power between the two [major] parties,” Lee said.

Lee also criticized the DP for pressuring the judiciary and abusing immunity from arrest to safeguard their 61-year-old presidential candidate, Lee Jae-myung.

Lee Jae-myung was convicted of election law violation last November for making a false statement in 2021 he when emerged as a presidential candidate for 2022 election. He was acquitted on appeal on March 26, but the Supreme Court overturned that ruling on May 1, sending the case back to the lower court. The DP is now pressuring Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Jo Hee-de by summoning him to parliamentary questioning session on Wednesday.

Lee said “forces coercing the judiciary should be held accountable,” characterizing that opinion as a “public voice.”

Lee also outlined his presidential campaign promises during his speech on Monday.

He promised to reorganize governmental ministries and agencies to redirect authority from the executive branch and introduce prime ministers for security, strategy and social affairs.

Lee additionally vowed to bring overseas factories back to Korean soil in to revive domestic economies. He added that he would give municipal governments the autonomy to attract firms with corporate tax incentives.

While putting aside PPP's Kim, Lee Jun-seok said his competition against DP's Lee Jae-myung would be a race of “future versus past and new versus old.”

“The historic goal of this election,” Lee said, “is to hand over a baton for a new era, to a new party.”

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[emailprotected]]

Lee Jun-seok: How a Harvard engineer became the king of Korea's young men (2025)
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