PROFILE Who is Lee Jae-myung?

Lee jae-myung as a teenager working at a factory / Courtesy of Lee Jae-myung camp from 2022 presidential election

Controversial, stubborn and tenacious are some adjectives that can be associated with Lee Jae-myung, 61, who is competing for the third time in South Korea's June 3 presidential election.

Leading the polls with a wide margin, Lee is a heavyweight politician with the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), having served as the former party leader, as well as governor of Gyeonggi Province and mayor of Seongnam City.

Born in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, as the fifth child out of seven, he grew up poor. He often skipped elementary school because he had to walk 5 kilometers to get there.

Lee moved to Seongnam as a teenager, but had to give up school to earn money, alongside his mother and sister who cleaned toilets. He worked at multiple factories, and his wrist was crushed in an industrial accident. This injury later exempted him from mandatory military service.

Lee Jae-myung, then-Gyeonggi Province governor and presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, holds up a placard during a National Assembly audit in Suwon, Oct. 18, 2021. He is seen addressing corruption allegations surrounding a major development project in the Daejang-dong section of the city. Joint Press Corps

He substituted his missed school years with equivalency exams and studied law at Chung-Ang University with a scholarship. Lee passed the state bar exam in 1986, and became a human rights lawyer and activist.

He entered the political arena in 2005, when he joined the predecessor of the DPK, and has stayed within the party's boundaries since.

His failed in his first election for Seongnam mayor in 2006, but was elected in 2010 and 2014. He started earning recognition for welfare policies such as city-funded school uniforms and a universal basic income.

Lee was a DPK contender for the 2017 presidential election, but lost the party candidacy to Moon Jae-in, who ended up becoming president. Lee was elected governor of Gyeonggi Province the following year.

He ran again in the 2022 presidential election as the DPK's candidate but lost by a narrow margin to Yoon Suk Yeol. He became a lawmaker representing an electoral district in the city of Incheon later that year in a local government election.

Lee Jae-myung raises his crooked left arm, injured while working at a factory when he was a teenager, during an event publicizing his book, "Lee Jae-myung's Crooked Arm," in Seoul in this Feb. 8, 2017 photo. Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han

In January 2024, Lee survived a knife attack during a public appearance in Busan. He sustained a neck injury and was airlifted to a hospital, prompting a nationwide outpouring of support and condemnation of attacks targeting politicians.

Lee is currently entangled in multiple legal battles that could have a significant impact on his candidacy — and, possibly the legitimacy of the election result. The most urgent case concerns allegations that he made false statement during a televised debate in the presidential campaign in 2022, violating the Public Official Election Act.

A district court initially convicted him and imposed a 3 million won ($2,136) fine — a sentence that, if upheld, would have disqualified him from holding public office. However, he was later acquitted by an appellate court on appeal.

The Supreme Court then overturned the acquittal and returned the case for retrial. The next hearing is scheduled for June 18 at the Seoul High Court — well after the June 3 vote. As such, a final verdict is unlikely to be issued before voters cast their ballots.

Democratic Party of Korea’s presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung gives a speech during a campaign launch rally at Cheonggye Plaza in Jongno District, Seoul, Monday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Should Lee be convicted after winning the presidency, a constitutional debate could emerge over Article 84, which shields a sitting president from criminal prosecution except in cases of insurrection or treason.

Lee also faces a separate criminal trial on two high-profile corruption charges. The first involves an alleged breach of trust in the Daejang-dong land development scandal, which prosecutors claim resulted in massive losses to Seongnam City during his term as mayor.

The second case involves bribery linked to donations.

Prosecutors allege that Lee pressured private companies to contribute to Seongnam FC — the city's football club — in exchange for administrative favors. Both trials are ongoing at the district court level, with verdicts not expected before the election.

Depending on how and when these cases are resolved, Lee may either strengthen his candidacy by clearing his name or trigger a political crisis if convicted after the vote.