by SAM KIM
Lee Jae-myung PHOTO/SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
He respects Donald Trump and enjoys being compared to Bernie Sanders.
Lee Jae-myung, mayor of a city near Seoul, is rising in opinion polls with about a year to go until South Korea’s next presidential election. He wants to break up the country’s biggest companies, meet unconditionally with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and throw President Park Geun-hye in jail over an influence-peddling scandal.
“Americans impeached their establishment by electing Trump,” Lee, 52, said in an interview Wednesday at his office in Seongnam city. “Our own elections will mirror that.”
With populist movements gaining traction globally, Lee is tapping into anger in South Korea over corruption and a lack of jobs. In recent weeks, Seoul has seen some of the biggest protests since the 1980s as ordinary Koreans decry the links between politicians and big business that have stifled competition in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy. Park’s approval dropped to a record low of 4 percent this week, Gallup Korea said Friday.
Lee — nicknamed “Korea’s Trump” by some of his supporters — moved into third place in presidential polls released in the past week, behind United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and front-runner Moon Jae-in, the runner-up to Park in 2012. While Lee has declared his candidacy, neither Ban nor Moon have committed to running. Lee expects to compete with Moon to be the candidate for themain opposition Democratic Party of Korea.
While an election is currently a year off, the timetable could quickly accelerate. If Park were to resign or be removed from office, an election would be held within 60 days.
“Lee’s fast rise does seem to suggest that his supporters are sick of business as usual in the Blue House,” said Steven Ward, who teaches political science at South Korea’s Chosun University. “Voter discontent with the establishment very well might be high enough to propel a populist into office on the protest vote, and Lee could be that person.”
Working-Class
Unlike U.S. President-elect Trump, Lee, a former lawyer, comes from a working-class family. His left arm remains twisted after it was pressed under a machine in a factory accident when he was a teenager.
He entered politics a decade ago after working as a human rights lawyer in Seongnam — a city that grew with an influx of workers unable to afford homes in Seoul during the country’s high-growth years. With a population of one million, the city now generates some of the highest tax revenue in the country and houses technology companies such as Naver Corp., the nation’s biggest portal website.
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