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Lee Jun-seok | |
|---|---|
이준석 | |
 Lee in 2024 | |
| Leader of the Reform Party | |
| In office 20 January 2024 – 19 May 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Her Eun-a |
| Leader of the People Power Party | |
| In office 11 June 2021 – 9 August 2022[1] | |
| Deputy | Han Ki-ho (Secretary-General) |
| Preceded by | Hwang Kyo-ahn Kim Gi-hyeon (interim) |
| Succeeded by | Joo Ho-young (interim) |
| Member of theNational Assembly | |
| Assumed office 30 May 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Lee Won-wook |
| Constituency | Hwaseong B |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1985-03-31)31 March 1985 (age 40) Seongdong,Seoul, South Korea |
| Citizenship | South Korean |
| Political party | Reform Party[2] |
| Other political affiliations | GNP (2011–2012) Saenuri (2012–2016) Bareun (2017–2018) Bareunmirae (2018–2020) People Power (2020–2023) Independent (2023–2024) |
| Alma mater | Harvard University (BA) |
| Signature |  |
| Nickname | Andy Lee |
| Lee Jun-seok | |
| Hangul | 이준석 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 李俊錫 |
| Revised Romanization | I Junseok |
| McCune–Reischauer | I Chunsŏk |
Lee Jun-seok (Korean: 이준석; born 31 March 1985) is a South Korean politician who served asparty leader of theconservativeReform Party since January 2024.
Lee entered politics as a relatively young member of thePark Geun-hye presidential administration, during which he served as one of the 11-memberGrand National Party's (later renamed Saenuri Party) Executive Leadership Council, the youngest member ever to sit on the Council.[3] After the impeachment of Park in 2016, he left the Saenuri Party and joined the centre-right conservative minorBareun Party, of which he served as one of the party's Supreme Council members. The Bareun Party merged into theBareunmirae Party, and Lee's faction of that party later merged with the majority right-wing conservative Party to form the current People Power Party (PPP).[4]
In June 2021, the PPP voted to select Lee Jun-seok as its leader, making him the youngest person in South Korean history to lead the main conservative bloc.[5] As leader of the PPP, Lee led his party to victory in the2022 presidential election and the2022 local elections. He has been noted for his staunchanti-feminism and support from South Koreanidaenam.[6][7]
On 8 July 2022, Lee was given a six-month suspension from the PPP as the result of a bribery and prostitution scandal.[8] Lee was officially removed from party leadership on 9 August.[1] On 20 September, Police decided not to refer Lee to prosecution over sexual bribery charges.[9] On 7 October, Lee's party suspension was extended by a year by the party's ethics committee.[10] On 13 October, police decided not to refer Lee to prosecution over evidence destruction.[11]
His suspension from the PPP was removed on 2 November 2023, together with three other politicians' suspensions.[12] Since then, he has left the PPP to establish a new party, theReform Party.
Lee Jun-seok was born atHanyang University Hospital inSeongdong District, Seoul on 31 March 1985. His father, Su-Wol Lee, was the previous head of the global institutional sales team atShinhan Bank, while mother, Hyang-Ja Kim, was a teacher at Andong Girls' High School.[13] During his adolescent years, he lived in a semi-basement house in Sanggye-dong, an impoverished neighbourhood where the housing price was the cheapest. A few years later, his family eventually moved to a middle-class district Hanshin Village in Sanggye-dong and lived there for ten years. After his father was assigned overseas, he stayed in Singapore and Indonesia for one year.[14][15][full citation needed]
When he returned to Korea, he settled inMok-dong and graduated from Wolchon Middle School. After graduating from Middle School, he mainly lived in a dormitory due to academic reasons. He returned toSanggye-dong after 20 years.[14][15] During his time atSeoul Science High School, Lee Jun-Seok served as the vice president of the student council. In March 2003, he was accepted atKAIST as aMath major but withdrew admission right after receiving his Harvard acceptance letter and full-ride presidential science scholarship.[16]
After graduating fromHarvard University in 2007, Lee Jun-seok returned to Korea to perform military duties working as a software developer (alternative military service as industrial technical personnel) at 'Innotive', an image browsing software startup, a subsidiary ofNexon. While on duty, Lee established a non-profit organization called Edushare 'Society of Sharing Education' and became its acting representative.[17]
After completing his national service, Lee prepared to start his own venture. He received funding from the venture startup program backed by the SME (Small & Medium Enterprise) Ministry on 5 August 2011 and founded Classe Studio: an ed-tech startup that developed personalized tutoring software and workplace training applications.[18]
Lee had an interview withPark Geun-hye, the head ofGrand National Party's emergency response committee, who visited 'Edushare' in November 2011 for 2 hours.[19] He was introduced as a venture entrepreneur in his 20s who graduated from Harvard University on 29 December. Then, Lee was recruited to the emergency response committee of the Grand National Party.[20]
After being appointed to the committee, Lee attracted attention with his eloquence in debate. He increased his public recognition by appearing on various TV Shows. Then, Lee ran for the National Assembly election in 2016 inSanggye-dong againstAhn Cheol-soo (the running candidate for Presidential primary) but lost.[21]
Lee was nicknamed as 'Park Geun-hye Kid', but supported Park's impeachment in October 2016. Lee left withSaenuri Party and established a new political party, named theBareun Party withYoo Seong-min.[22] In 2018, Lee unsuccessfully ran for the National Assembly election. Before the 21st election of members of the National Assembly, Lee was appointed as a youth supreme representative in Future Unification Party.[23]
After seeing a taxi driver setting fire to himself in the National Assembly, Lee acquired a taxi driver's license and worked as a taxi driver for 12 hours daily for two months in March and April 2019.[24] Even though Lee never won an election, he lived as a political commentator, media host for 10 years, appearing on both entertainment and political TV Shows.
In 2021, Lee ran for the election to select the representative of the People Power Party. He became popular in the 20s and 30s due to his opposing stance againstpolitical correctness such as "faux feminism," introducing reforms supportingmeritocracy rather than outrightequality of outcome.[25] Lee lost the partial election toNa Kyung-won, but won the main election, recording 43.82 percent (93,390 votes) including votes from the Public Opinion Poll.[26] As a result, Lee was elected as the leader of the PPP, the youngest to represent the main conservative bloc in Korean political history.
Lee has a negative stance onaffirmative action.[27][28] He is rated as havingIdaenam as his main support.[7]
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On November 29, 2021, Lee posted a Facebook post saying "If that is the case, this is it," with another post showing a text emoji of a smiling face and a thumbs-down gesture, and has refused to answer on the phone and has been avoiding the press until December 3. The move was considered to be a protest againstYoon Suk Yeol ignoring him as leader of the party.[29] The feud was resolved by their meeting in Ulsan on December 3.[30]
On 22 April 2022, the PPP opened an ethics violation complaint against Lee Jun-seok for an allegation of sexual favours in 2013. Lee denied the allegation and filed a lawsuit against the YouTube channel that made the allegation. Lee is the first chairman in the history of the country's main conservative party to be referred to the ethics committee for review while still in office.[31]
On 8 July 2022, the PPP's ethics commission sentenced Lee to a six-month suspension of party activities and from his role as party leader until 8 January 2023. The subject of the committee's deliberation was the alleged attempts of Lee and Kim Cheol-keun, the head of the party's political affairs office, to destroy evidence. Kim Cheol-keun was handed a two-year suspension from party activities for destroying evidence of Lee Jun-seok's acceptance of sexual favors and bribery.[8]
On 9 August, Lee was automatically removed from party leadership.Joo Ho-young took over as interim party leader on the following day.[1]
On 26 August, a court decided that Lee's removal was against the party constitution.[32] On 8 September, the PPP central committee amended the party constitution, and Chung Jin-Seok took over as the new interim party leader instead.[33] On 20 September, police decided not to refer Lee to prosecution over sexual bribery charges.[9]
On 7 October, Lee's suspension was extended by another year by the PPP's ethics committee.[10]
On 13 October, police concluded that 'the footage proving that Lee Jun-seok had received sexual favors' never actually existed, and police decided not to refer Lee to prosecution over evidence destruction.[11] Lee's suspension was removed, along with other politicians such asHong Joon-pyo, on 2 November 2023.[12]
On 20 January 2024, Lee founded theReform Party. On 10 April, he was elected as a member of the National Assembly for the first time. His victory was unexpected, as Lee moved to his new constituency only weeks before the election. He was the only candidate to win a constituency seat defeating both of the main parties in Korea, thePeople Power Party and theDemocratic Party of Korea.
On 18 March 2025, the party announced that Lee would be its candidate for a potential presidential election to be held in the event that theimpeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol is upheld.[34]
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While some critics have described Lee asfar-right,[35] and others have characterized him asleft-wing,[36] Lee describes himself as a "conservative-leaning liberal".[37]
Lee has advocated for increasedmeritocracy.[38][39][40][41] Lee has been critical of affirmative action policies, such as gender and regional quotas, contending that they may inadvertently perpetuate discrimination by emphasizing group identities over individual capabilities.[42] He proposed that the state lead targeted interventions similar toNo Child Left Behind Act orEvery Student Succeeds Act in public education to raise baseline achievement levels.[43]
He has publicly supported democratic movements in the2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, voicing criticism of the Chinese government's actions.[44] Following theRussian invasion of Ukraine, Lee has visited Ukraine and expressed support for international pro-democracy and humanitarian efforts.[45]
Lee has expressed criticism of certain feminist movements in South Korea, describing them as havingtotalitarian tendencies.[46]
As part of Reform Party platform, Lee proposed that starting in 2030, include mandatory military service as a qualification requirement for both men and women in certain public sector roles.[47]
Lee has argued that the current fare exemption policy for senior citizens leads to financial strain on urban transit operators and causes regional inequality, as benefits are concentrated in metropolitan areas with developed infrastructure. He has proposed replacing the system with a transportation voucher model, which he claims would "address these disparities and improve the sustainability of senior transit benefits.[48]
Na Kyung-won, a former politician leader in the PPP, described Lee's politics as "Trumpism".[49]. South Korean liberal newspaperThe Hankyoreh also compared Lee Jun-seok toDonald Trump. It wrote that there may be many differences in the political positions of the two, but the background of their dissatisfaction with the established system is similar.[50] Lee stated that he fashions himself more afterBarack Obama in terms of policy.[51]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)[55]| Year | Constituency | Political party | Votes (%) | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Nowon C | Saenuri | 32,285 (31.32%) | Defeated |
| 2018 | Nowon C | Bareunmirae | 25,001 (27.23%) | Defeated |
| 2020 | Nowon C | United Future | 46,373 (44.36%) | Defeated |
| 2024 | Hwaseong B | Reform Party | 51,856 (42.41%) | Elected |
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)| Leaders (acting) | |||||||
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