https://thediplomat.com/2023/10/ami...ghtens-grip-on-south-koreas-opposition-party/
This Lee guy also has some stories de woh
Amid Legal Troubles, Lee Jae-myung Tightens Grip on South Korea’s Opposition Party
South Korean politics is becoming messier as the proxy war between Lee and President Yoon continues.
By
Eunwoo Lee
October 10, 2023
South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung arrives to attend a hearing on his arrest warrant on corruption charges at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea, Sept. 26, 2023.
Credit: AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon
It’s not an exaggeration to say that President Yoon Suk-yeol’s archnemesis is Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the largest opposition Democratic Party (DP). Their feud goes back to early last year, when they were vying for presidency. There couldn’t have been two candidates more diametrically opposed in their upbringing and world views. To this day, they are fighting proxy wars through parliament and the Prosecutor’s Office.
Born into a poor farming family, Lee couldn’t go to middle and high school, instead working in a factory. His childhood was marked by foraging for food and abuse in his workplace, where a press jammed his arm and crippled it permanently. Still, he went to night school and eventually to university to study law.
Lee made his name as a human rights lawyer, representing those sharing similar backgrounds of poverty and victimization. He then entered politics, becoming mayor of Seongnam, a satellite city south of Seoul, in 2010 and governor of Gyeonggi, South Korea’s most populous province, in 2017.
On the flip side, Yoon was everything that Lee wasn’t. A side-by-side comparison of two childhood
photos shows as much. His hair trimmed nicely, Yoon is wearing a neat navy jacket over a starched white collar decked with a red bow tie. Meanwhile, Lee is dwarfed under his moppy hair and a baggy factory uniform.