Lee Jae-myung Height, Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Lee Jae-myung

• He was born on 8 December 1963, but his father registered it late on 22 December 1964.

• As a child, he grew up in poverty and missed all social functions because his family had no money.

• His elementary school teachers helped him financially so that he could go on school trips and join community programs.

• Reportedly, one of his favourite childhood activities was fishing with friends.

• His first-grade report card remarked that he was stubborn, had average grades, and was well-behaved.

• After elementary school, middle and high school were not free in South Korea.

• His father lost most of his money in gambling, so the family moved from Andong to Seongnam to find work. The government forced many poor people to live and work in the Seongnam industries.

• He worked in a handmade necklace factory and left middle school. After the factory closed down, he worked at Dongma Rubber, where he injured his finger.

• Lee Jae-myung was too young to work legally, so he used fake names.

• He then worked in the Daeyang Industry, where his wrist joint was crushed by a machine. The injury was not treated properly, so it permanently disabled his arm.

• As a registered disabled person, he was denied service in the military.

  

  Lee Jae-myung in 1976

• When Lee Jae-myung was working as a labourer, he saw other students in school uniforms, which motivated him to study again. He took special classes and passed the middle school exam in 1978.

• In 1981, he received a high school diploma and also passed the university entrance exam. His high school results earned him a scholarship to study law at Chung-Ang University.

  

  Lee Jae-myung’s identification slip for his college entrance exam for the academic year 1982

• While growing up in poverty, his experiences shaped his political beliefs, which focused on fighting for his rights and helping the poor.

• In 1986, he passed the bar exam and then trained for two years at the Judicial Research and Training Institute.

• Lee Jae-myung was against the dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan.

• Initially, he wanted to become a judge or prosecutor for the status and a good salary, but after hearing a speech by Roh Moo-hyun, he got inspired to become a human rights and labour lawyer, like Roh and Moon Jae-in.

• After that, he opened a law office in Seongnam and worked with the group Minbyun.

• Lee Jae-myung supported labour and human rights and worked with labour counselling centres in Incheon and Gwangju.

• In 1995, he led the Seongnam Citizens’ Association, a civic movement.

• Lee Jae-myung became popular during the Park View case, which involved corruption in the land and building permits given to government officials in Bundang.

• In 2002, two big hospitals in Seongnam closed. Lee started a movement to build a public hospital.

• The city council, run by the Grand National Party, rejected the plan in 47 seconds. Lee’s group protested, and he was charged with stopping public officials.

• This made him realise that social activism was not enough, so he decided to join politics to make the change.

• On 23 August 2005, Lee joined the Uri Party, which later became part of the Democratic Party of Korea.

• In the 2006 local elections, he contested for mayor of Seongnam but lost. He received 23.75% of the vote, due to the unpopularity of the Uri Party and President Roh Moo-hyun at the time.

• In the 2007 presidential election, Lee Jae-myung worked as the senior deputy chief for Chung Dong-young, the candidate of the Grand Unified Democratic New Party.

• In the 2008 general election, he contested for the Seongnam Jungwon A district but lost to his opponent, Cho Sung-jun.

• He was then nominated for Seongnam Bundang A, but lost again. He received 33% of the vote.

• After that election, he became the deputy spokesperson of the Democratic Party. He was appointed by party leader Chung Sye-kyun.

• Apart from being a politician, he is also an author. He has published many books, such as Make Hope Through Hardness (in Korean; 2010), Lee Jae-myung, Revolutionise Korea (in Korean; 2017), and My Factory Boy’s Diary (in Korean; 2018).

• In the 2010 local elections, Lee Jae-myung contested for mayor of Seongnam on the ticket of the Democratic Party and won with 51.16% of the vote. He defeated his opponent, Hwang Jun-gi.

• In his first speech as the 19th mayor, he spoke about taking small, hopeful steps together and making Seongnam a city where citizens were the leaders and everyone had equal opportunity.

• After becoming Mayor, he shifted the mayor’s office to a smaller space and turned the former luxury office into a book café. This step made him popular.

• At his first press conference, Lee Jae-myung announced a suspension on city spending and debt repayment because Seongnam was heavily in debt.

• One major debt was 520 billion South Korean won owed for the Pangyo project. He renegotiated the amount and paid off using municipal bonds.

• He became popular for his active use of social media like Twitter and Facebook, where he often shares his opinions on national issues.

• After that, Lee installed CCTV in his mayoral office. He claimed that many people used to bring money in envelopes.

• Lee Jae-myung then began improving welfare in the city, especially strengthening the Seongnam Medical Centre. He started giving free school uniforms to students.

• He introduced a youth dividend scheme and started a basic income for young citizens.

• Lee’s eldest brother lost one leg in an industrial accident while working in construction, and his youngest sister, Jae-ok, worked as a cleaner in Anyang City and died from overwork during an early morning shift in 2014.

• In 2014, he was re-elected as mayor with 55.1% of the vote.

• Lee Jae-myung banned dog meat and closed dog slaughterhouses in Moran Market after years of public debate.

• In 2016, he told a Japanese media reporter that Japan was South Korea’s de facto military enemy and could invade if it strengthened its military.

• He often criticises Japanese militarism, but supports the GSOMIA military agreement between South Korea and Japan to maintain good ties with the U.S.

• In 2016, he made a deal with shop owners to stop showing and killing live dogs at the market.

• In 2016, the Park Geun-hye–Choi Soon-sil scandal broke out, which led to nationwide protests.

• He gained national attention during these protests when he criticised President Park. He declared that she was no longer the country’s leader.

• Lee Jae-myung strongly criticised President Park Geun-hye’s ways of handling the Sewol ferry tragedy.

• He held an 11-day hunger strike against Park’s plan to change local government funding, which could have hurt Buddhist groups.

• A survey claimed that Lee fulfilled 270 out of 287 promises as mayor. His key achievements included expanding the medical centre, the youth dividend program, and free uniforms.

• He achieved a 94.1% success rate in keeping his promises.

• His youth dividend idea later became a major part of his national political goals.

• During the Democratic Party’s 2017 primary, Lee ranked second in public polls after Moon Jae-in.

• Lee Jae-myung became known as a progressive voice within the Democratic Party.

• After President Park was impeached and replaced by Hwang Kyo-ahn, Lee’s popularity dropped as protests faded.

• In the party primary, Lee Jae-myung came third with 347,647 votes. Ahn Hee-jung was second, and Moon Jae-in won with over 936,000 votes.

• Later, Moon Jae-in won the presidency and defeated his opponents, Hong Joon-pyo, Ahn Cheol-soo, Yoo Seung-min, and Sim Sang-jung.

• After losing the presidential nomination, he contested for Governor of Gyeonggi Province in the 2018 local elections.

• The same year, actress Kim Boo-sun claimed that she was in a relationship with Lee from 2007 to 2009 during the campaign.

• On 1 March 2018, he said in a media conversation that Japan, as the aggressor in World War II, should have been divided after the war, not Korea.

• In April 2018, Lee Jae-myung won the Democratic Party primary with 60% of the vote. He beat his opponent, Jeon Hae-cheol.

• He then defeated the sitting governor, Nam Kyung-pil, with 56% of the total vote and became the first liberal Governor of Gyeonggi Province in 20 years.

• In 2018, during the Gyeonggi election, a Twitter account was accused of spreading false information. The police claimed that it belonged to Lee’s wife. The case was dropped due to a lack of evidence.

• Lee Jae-myung earned recognition for his immediate actions during the early stages of COVID-19.

• He launched a mobile app to track COVID-19 cases. He used encrypted data to protect privacy.

• In March 2020, Lee Jae-myung pressured the founder of the Shincheonji Church to cooperate with virus testing and tracing.

• He ordered all foreign workers in the province to get tested for COVID-19, which showed 329 new cases.

• In 2020, Lee Jae-myung disagreed with the central government over giving COVID-19 relief money to everyone in Gyeonggi Province.

  

  Lee Jae-myung in 2020

• In 2020, the Supreme Court cleared him of breaching campaign laws for denying that he tried to institutionalise his brother. They ruled that while he lied, it was not an active distortion.

• In 2021, Lee Jae-myung claimed on social media that he would distance himself from the Moon Jae-in government’s feminist policies to gain support from young men.

• The politicians like Sim Sang-jung and Ahn Cheol-soo criticised him for being anti-feminist or misogynistic. However, in 2016, he introduced a subsidy for teens to buy period products and supported insurance coverage for abortions and contraceptives. The move was praised by feminists.

• Lee Jae-myung then opposed the conservative idea of abolishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

• He criticised Yoon Suk-yeol for saying that gender inequality did not exist and demanded a public apology.

• On 22 August 2021, Lee Jae-myung announced a detailed foreign policy plan in which he said that foreign policy should improve the lives of people.

• He believed that it should be practical and focused on the benefits of the country. Lee said that he would continue the peace efforts made by past liberal presidents.

• As a presidential candidate, he shared his views on the United States, China, and Japan and wanted to build friendly relations with North Korea.

• Lee Jae-myung also mentioned President Kim Dae-jung’s Sunshine Policy, Roh Moo-hyun’s summit with Kim Jong Il, and Moon Jae-in’s peace talks with North Korea.

• He supports removing sanctions on North Korea, only if North Korea starts to give up its nuclear weapons. If North Korea breaks its promise, Lee believes that the sanctions should be brought back right away.

• Lee Jae-myung supports strong trade ties and friendly relations with the United States.

• He appreciates the presence of the US military in South Korea. However, he has criticised the US-deployed THAAD missile system. He said that it led to economic revenge from China.

• Later, he said that since THAAD was already in place, South Korea should make new decisions about its alliance with the US and denuclearisation efforts with North Korea.

• Lee Jae-myung believes that the US is South Korea’s only official partner, and keeping a good relationship with the US is most important.

• He said that China was also an important strategic partner.

• Lee Jae-myung believes South Korea should not be forced to choose between the U.S. and China. According to him, good diplomacy means making both countries want to work with South Korea.

• On 10 October 2021, he became the official presidential candidate for the Democratic Party of Korea.

• On 25 October 2021, he resigned as governor to prepare for the presidential position.

• Lee Jae-myung contested the 2022 presidential election, focusing on equality, public welfare, and making Korea a leader in global issues like climate change, pandemics, and technology.

• He said that boosting the economy and improving people’s lives were his top goals. He also stated that he was open to any ideas, regardless of ideology.

• After losing the presidential election, he contested and won a seat in the National Assembly for Incheon Gyeyang District B in the June 2022 by-elections.

• In his victory speech, Lee Jae-myung said that he wanted to build a new and better Korea through reforms.

• On 28 August 2022, he was appointed as the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea.

• Since 2022, he has faced investigations over alleged corporate bribery and favouritism during his time as mayor of Seongnam.

• Lee Jae-myung accused China of stealing Korean culture when a Chinese performer wore a hanbok at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

• In 2022, he claimed that if a Chinese fishing boat entered South Korean waters illegally, he would sink it.

• In January 2023, Lee Jae-myung became the first major politician in South Korea’s democratic era to be questioned in a criminal probe.

• In February 2023, a prosecution request was made to arrest him. The appeal was rejected by the National Assembly, even with 30 members of his own party voting to approve it.

• In March 2023, Lee Jae-myung was accused of multiple charges, including bribery and corruption, related to real estate deals and a football club.

• In September 2023, another arrest request over land development favouritism and $8 million allegedly sent to North Korea was approved by the National Assembly, but a court denied the warrant and released him.

• On 2 January 2024, while speaking to reporters at a new airport construction site in Busan, Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in the neck.

• He was conscious but bleeding and was taken to the hospital after 20 minutes.

• The attacker asked for an autograph before stabbing him and was wearing a paper crown that said ‘I’m Lee Jae-myung.’

• The attacker, a man born in 1957 with the surname Kim, was arrested at the scene.

• The wound was about 1 cm deep and was not life-threatening. It required a long surgery as his jugular vein was damaged.

• During police investigations, the attacker told the police that he wanted to kill Lee.

  

  Lee Jae-myung pictured after the assassination attempt

• In June 2024, he was accused of arranging $8 million in illegal payments to North Korea to set up a visit to Pyongyang. He denied all charges.

• In 2024, Lee Jae-myung got worldwide attention when President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, and he tried to stop the National Assembly from meeting by using the military.

• He went to the Assembly building and live-streamed himself while climbing over the fence and crossing the soldiers.

• Lee Jae-myung urged citizens to come to the Assembly building for a protest.

• The Democratic Party claimed that Police teams were sent to catch Lee, Han Dong-hoon, and Woo Won-shik.

  

  Lee Jae-myung while climbing over the fence of the Assembly building

• A top official from the National Intelligence Service, Hong Jang-won, confirmed that President Yoon wanted to arrest opposition leaders and remove them.

• At first, Lee Jae-myung thought the martial law news was fake, but once he knew it was real, he opposed it.

• He led efforts to impeach President Yoon and often protested outside the Assembly. He claimed that Yoon was disloyal.

• In November 2024, Lee Jae-myung was accused of lying during the 2022 election campaign and received a suspended one-year prison sentence. He was later cleared of the case.

• On 14 December 2024, the National Assembly officially impeached President Yoon.

• In the same year, Lee Jae-myung criticised President Yoon for harmful relations with China. He said that it led to a trade deficit with China for the first time in many years.

• He said that South Korea should not interfere in China-Taiwan issues and should stay neutral.

• Lee Jae-myung supports a two-track strategy with Japan. He promotes economic and diplomatic cooperation and manages historical issues and national security.

• He opposes military drills with Japan and calls supporters of such drills ‘pro-Japan extremists.’

• In March 2025, the Seoul High Court cleared Lee Jae-myung of charges of breaking election laws. However, on 1 May 2025, after the prosecutors’ appeal, the Supreme Court cancelled that decision.

• The case was again sent to the Seoul High Court for review before referring it to the Supreme Court for a final ruling.

• In March 2025, the Seoul High Court acquitted him in the false statement case, but the Supreme Court overturned it and sent it back for retrial. Lee was fined ₩3 million (about $2,000) for refusing to testify in the Seongnam case. Later that month, he was fined ₩5 million (about $3,400) for refusing to testify again.

• The retrial was scheduled for 15 May 2025 but postponed to 18 June 2025.

• On 9 April 2025, five days after President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached, Lee Jae-myung resigned as the leader of the Democratic Party.

• On 10 April 2025, he announced that he would contest for president for the third time.

• On 27 April 2025, Lee Jae-myung won the Democratic Party’s primary and became its official presidential candidate.

• On 3 June 2025, he won the presidential election with 49.42% of the vote.

• He was sworn in as President on 4 June 2025 at 11:00 AM in the Rotunda Hall of the National Assembly. Before the ceremony, his first official event was a tribute at the Seoul National Cemetery.

• Lee Jae-myung nominated Kim Min-seok as Prime Minister and chose key figures for security and foreign affairs roles, including Lee Jong-seok (NIS), Wi Sung-lac (NSC), and Kang Hoon-sik (chief of staff).

• Kang Yu-jung, a campaign spokeswoman, was appointed as presidential spokesperson, and Hwang In-kwon was named head of the Presidential Security Service.

• He kept most ministers from the previous government, except for the Justice Minister, Park Sung-jae.

• Lee Jae-myung then began living at the Yongsan Presidential Office, but planned to move to the old presidential residence, Cheong Wa Dae.

• On 5 June 2025, he cancelled Constitutional Court nominations made by the former acting president. He ordered the Fisheries Ministry to shift its office to Busan, as promised during his campaign.

  

  Lee Jae-myung after becoming the president of South Korea

• Lee Jae-myung supports centre-left economic policies inspired by New Deal liberalism, similar to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
  He aims for state-led economic revival to solve Korea’s low growth and inequality issues.

• His main economic plan is called Transformative and Fair Growth, which focuses on reducing inequality between large companies and small businesses. It supports platform workers and irregular employees, fixes real estate inequality, encourages fair competition and innovation, invests in a Green New Deal, digital transformation, education, and expands social safety nets.

• He supports tax cuts on real estate and partial deregulation for businesses. These economic liberal views show a slight shift to the right, especially around the 2022 election.

• Lee Jae-myung often praises Park Chung Hee, South Korea’s military dictator, for building key infrastructure and leading industrial growth. He compared his green policies to Park’s ‘Gyeongbu Expressway’ with his idea of an ‘energy highway.’ He praised Chun Doo-hwan’s economic performance, which upset many liberals.

• Left-wing parties such as the Justice Party accused him of abandoning progressive values. The conservative rivals mocked Lee as being closer to their party than to liberal ideals.

• In his 2022 presidential campaign, he promised to introduce a Universal Basic Income (UBI) for all citizens. He used to run similar income programs when he was a mayor and governor.

• Lee Jae-myung said that the young people, farmers, and fishermen would get basic income first, and later everyone would be included.

• The plan was to give every citizen ₩1,000,000 (about $900) per year, and youth aged between 19 to 29 would get ₩2,000,000 (about $1,800).

• He announced during the elections that he would increase this amount to ₩6,000,000 (about $5,400) per year. The extra payments were planned for farmers, children, the elderly, and disabled people.

• Lee Jae-myung planned to make these payments through the carbon tax and a land value tax, which aimed to stop real estate deductions and lower pollution.

• He supported the idea of ‘basic loans’ for all citizens. Under this plan, anyone could borrow up to ₩10,000,000 (about $8,750) from the government at a 3% interest rate, irrespective of the person’s credit ability.

• Lee Jae-myung claimed that borrowing from the government would be a safer option than borrowing from private lenders.
  

  Lee Jae-myung at the Basic Income Expo

• He believes data is key to digital progress. While working as the Gyeonggi governor, he converted government documents from Hangeul software to Open Document Format (ODF).

• Lee Jae-myung introduced the world’s first ‘data dividend and gave some data business profits back to the users who created the data.

• He used this data to fight against African swine fever and abolished illegal construction companies.

• According to him, big tech companies with too much control can block fair digital growth.

• Lee Jae-myung supports better contracts for platform workers to protect them in the digital age.

• He believes South Korea needs policies that prepare it for the impact of AI on jobs and society.

• He supports free trade and opposes U.S. restrictions on South Korean semiconductor products.

• In education, Lee Jae-myung advocates a holistic approach and not just focusing on grades and scores. He believes that middle school performance should be judged by teachers using overall evaluations.

• He plans to launch a basic math program in high school under a ‘credit system’ to help struggling students.

• Lee Jae-myung frequently supports using AI tools for personalised learning and assessments, especially in subjects like math.

• He has suggested ‘outdoor school’ programs to help students build teamwork, curiosity, and confidence. This outdoor program would be conducted for about 10 hours each semester.
  

  Lee Jae-myung during a visit to a child care center

• He frequently supports the rights of immigrants and criticises traditional immigration policies that only focus on bringing in low-skilled workers.

• Lee Jae-myung works for the human rights of foreign workers. However, he does not support bringing in a large number of immigrants.

• His political party was against creating a separate immigration office under the Ministry of Justice.

• In the 2022 election, he supported anti-discrimination laws in general but opposed removing the military’s sodomy law and did not openly support LGBTQ rights.

• Lee Jae-myung said that he would not allow an anti-discrimination law that includes LGBTQ rights to pass without public agreement.

• Some noted media houses, like the New York Times, often claim in their articles that Lee is anti-feminist.

• During his 2022 campaign, he promised tougher punishment for sex crimes and more help for single women who were living alone.

• Lee Jae-myung also pledged better workplace protections for women, more sanitary pad subsidies, free HPV vaccines, and renaming gynaecology departments to focus on women’s health.

• He was against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and supported limited sanctions on Russia.

• Lee Jae-myung maintains friendly relations with Russia and did not criticise it.

• He blamed Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s policies as incompetent and provocative. He opposed sending weapons to Ukraine and said that it could harm South Korea’s economy.

• He is often spotted enjoying alcoholic beverages on various occasions.
  

  Lee Jae-myung (left) while enjoying alcoholic beverages

• Lee Jae-myung is an animal lover and has a pet dog. He often shares pictures of his pet on social media.

  

  Lee Jae-myung with his pet