Lee Jun-seok

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In this Korean name, the family name is Lee. The baptismal name is Andrew.
The Honourable
Lee Jun-seok
이준석
Lee Jun-seok, Leader of the People's Power, attended a campaign hosted by chungnam Province Chapter at the Sinbu Cultural Park in Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do on July 2, 2021 (3).jpg
Leader of the People Power Party
Assumed office
11 June 2021
DeputyCheong Yang-seog (Secretary-General)
Preceded byHwang Kyo-ahn
Kim Gi-hyeon (interim)
Personal details
Born (1985-03-31) 31 March 1985 (age 36)
Seongdong, Seoul, South Korea
CitizenshipSouth Korean
Political partyPeople Power
Other political
affiliations		GNP (2011-2012)
Saenuri (2012-2016)
Bareun (2017-2018)
Bareunmirae (2018-2020)
Alma materHarvard University (BA)
李俊錫
Hangul
Hanja
Revised RomanizationI Jun Seok

Lee Jun-seok (Korean: 이준석; Hanja: 李俊錫; born 31 March 1985) is a South Korean politician currently serving as the leader of the People Power Party, South Korea's main opposition party. In June 2021, the conservative Party voted to select Lee Jun-seok as its leader, making the Harvard graduate the youngest person to control the post for the main conservative bloc.[1] Previously, he served as one of the 11-member Grand National Party’s (later renamed Saenuri Party) Executive Leadership Council, being the youngest member ever to sit on the Council that was given the power to overhaul the Party.[2]

Lee graduated from Seoul Science High School and holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Computer Science from Harvard University. One of the “Park Geun-Hye kids,” he was drawn into politics by Park in 2011 when she was head of the Saenuri Party. As a relatively young politician, he served as a member of the emergency response committee and as the leader of the innovation committee until 2016. After the impeachment of Park in 2016, he left the Saenuri Party and joined the minor centre-right conservative Bareun Party, serving as its Supreme Council Member. The faction later merged with the majority right-wing conservative Party to form the current People Power Party.[3]

Biography[]

Lee Jun-seok in 2021

Early life[]

On 31 March 1985, Jun-Seok Lee was born at Hanyang University Hospital in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, between his father, Su-Wol Lee, previous head of global institutional sales team at Shinhan Bank, and Hyang-Ja Kim, his mother who was a teacher at Andong Girls' High School.[4] 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 onto 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. When he returned to Korea, he settled in Mok-dong and graduated from Wolchon Middle School. After graduating from Middle School, he mainly lived in a dormitory due to academic reasons. Now he returned to Sanggye-dong after 20 years.[5][6] During his time at Seoul Science High School, Lee Jun-Seok served as the vice president of the student council. In March 2003, he was accepted at KAIST as a Math major but withdrew admission right after receiving his Harvard acceptance letter and full-ride presidential science scholarship.[7]

After graduating from Harvard University in 2007, Lee Jun Seok returned to Korea to perform military duties working as a software developer (alternative military service as an industrial technical personnel) at ‘Innotive’, an image browsing software startup, a subsidiary of Nexon. While on the duty, Lee Jun Seok established a non-profit organization called Edushare ‘Society of Sharing Education’ and became its acting representative.[8] After completing his military obligation, Lee Jun Seok 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.[9]

Political career[]

Lee Jun Seok had an interview with Park Geun-Hye, the head of Grand National Party’s emergency response committee, who visited ‘Edushare’ in November 2011 for 2 hours.[10] Also, he was introduced as a 「venture entrepreneur in his 20s who graduated from Harvard University」 on 29 December. Then, Lee Jun Seok was recruited to the emergency response committee of the Grand National Party.[11] After being appointed as a member of the emergency response committee, Lee Jun Seok attracted people's attention with his eloquence in debate. He increased his public recognition by appearing on various TV Shows. Then, Lee Jun Seok ran for the election of members of the National Assembly in 2016 in Sanggyeo-dong against Ahn Cheol-Su (the running candidate for Presidential primary), but eventually ended up losing.[12]

Lee Jun Seok was nicknamed as ‘Park Geun-Hye Kid’, but he stood up for the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye since October 2016. Lee Jun Seok parted ways with Saenuri Party and established a new political party, named Baruen Party with Yoo Seong-min.[13] In 2018, Lee Jun Seok ran for the election of members of the National Assembly, but he lost the election. Before the 21st election of members of the National Assembly, Lee Jun Seok was appointed as a youth supreme representative in Future Unification Party.[14]

After seeing a taxi driver setting fire to himself in the National Assembly, Lee acquired a taxi driver license and worked as a taxi driver for 12 hours daily for two months in March and April of the year 2019.[15] Even though Lee Jun Seok 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 Jun Seok ran for the election for selecting the representative of the People Power Party. He became popular among the 20s and 30s due to his opposing stance against political correctness such as "faux feminism," introducing reforms supporting meritocracy rather than outright equality of outcome.[16] Lee Jun Seok lost the partial election in party member vote by candidate, Na Kyung-won, but won the main election, recording 43.82 percent (93,390 votes), which included votes from Public Opinion Poll.[17] As a result, Lee Jun Seok was elected as the leader of the People Power Party and he is the youngest to represent the main conservative bloc in Korean political history.

He also has a negative stance on affirmative action.[18][19] He is rated as having Idaenam as his main support.[20]

Lee's conflict with Yoon[]

Lee Jun-seok (right) with the former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl in 2021

On November 29th,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 3rd.The move is considered to be a protest against Yoon Seok-youl ignoring him as leader of the party.[21] The feud was resolved by their meeting in Ulsan in December 3rd.[22]

Criticism[]

He is considered a somewhat moderate conservative within the PPP, but he has been controversial for his tough stance on some issues. He is mainly supported by young men who are negative about feminism, and he said feminism has a somewhat totalitarian inclination.[23] Na Kyung-won, a leading female politician in the PPP, described Lee political line as "Trumpism."[24] Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic presidential contender in 2022, expressed concern about Lee Jun-seok's political popularity, saying, "It could lead to the emergence of far-right populism."[25][26] South Korean liberal journalist Hankyoreh also compared Lee Joon-seok to Donald Trump.[27]

Experience[]

2007 ~ 2010 : Software Developer at Innotive - Image Browsing Startup (Industrial technical personnel - Alternative Service for Korean Military Obligations)

2008 ~ : Representative at Edushare [28]

2011 ~ 2014 : CEO of Classe Studio

2011 ~ 2012: Emergency Response Committee of the Grand National Party[29]

2014 ~2016: Chairman of the Innovation Committee of Saenuri Party[30]

2017~: Founding President of the Korean Independent Baseball League[31]

2018 ~ 2019: Supreme Council Member of Bareun Mirae Party

2020 ~ 2020: Supreme Council Member of United Future Party

2021 ~ 2021 : New Media Director of the Election Committee for 4.7 by-election

2021~ : Leader of the People Power Party[32]

Authored books[]

Red cartouche
People's Power party's Chairperson Lee Jun-seok signed Lee's book "Fair Competition" brought by a student.
  • Lee Jun-seok (11 April 2012). 어린 놈이 정치를? : 이준석이 말하는 issue 25 (in Korean). Seoul: jcontentree M&B. ISBN 978-89-6456-168-3.
  • Lee Jun-seok, Sohn Ah-ram (5 March 2018). 그 의견에는 동의합니다 : 보수와 진보의 새로운 아이콘, 좌우의 간극과 그 접점을 이야기하다 (in Korean). Paju: book21. ISBN 978-89-509-7394-0.
  • Lee Jun-seok (28 June 2019). 공정한 경쟁 : 대한민국 보수의 가치와 미래를 묻다 (in Korean). Seoul: 나무옆의자. ISBN 979-11-6157-061-7.

Election results[]

General elections[]

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 UFP 46,373 (44.36%) Defeated

References[]

  1. ^ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-11/south-korea-opposition-taps-harvard-grad-to-lead-return-to-power
  2. ^ 26-year-old grabs spotlight among new GNP leaders
  3. ^ "Who is the new young leader of conservative People Power Party?". 11 June 2021.
  4. ^ "상계동 반지하서 국민의힘 대표로...사진으로 본 이준석의 36년". 중앙일보 (in Korean). 11 June 2021. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  5. ^ "노원신문". nowon.newsk.com. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  6. ^ "표창원, 새누리당 전 비대위원 이준석을 파헤치다". n.news.naver.com (in Korean). Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  7. ^ "이준석 비대위원, 학력의혹에 하버드大 학생증 공개". 머니투데이 (in Korean). 6 January 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  8. ^ "이준석이 '정치하는 이유'…"교육으로 공정한 경쟁할 수 있게 하겠다"". biz.chosun.com (in Korean). 4 June 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  9. ^ "박근혜가 '20대 벤처사업가' 이준석에 끌린 이유". hankyung.com (in Korean). 15 January 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  10. ^ "이준석, 박근혜에 반한 이유는…"2시간 토론 감동받아 2년 바쳤다"". 뉴스컬처 (in Korean). 14 March 2018. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  11. ^ "[서화숙의 만남] 새누리당 비상대책위원 이준석". 한국일보 (in Korean). 22 April 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  12. ^ 이승우 (24 January 2016). "'박근혜 키드' 이준석, '안철수 대항마'로 노원병 출마(종합)". 연합뉴스 (in Korean). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  13. ^ 입력 2018.09.25 06:00 (25 September 2018). "[월간중앙 직격 인터뷰] '청년 보수 아이콘' 떠오른 이준석 바른미래당 최고위원". 중앙일보 (in Korean). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  14. ^ 추하영 (15 May 2020). "[1번지 현장] 이준석 미래통합당 최고위원에게 묻는 포스트 총선". 연합뉴스 (in Korean). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  15. ^ 기자, 이형민 (2 March 2019). "조금 식상한 '택시기사 이준석' "쇼 아닙니다, 택시산업 갈등 풀어보려고…"". m.kmib.co.kr (in Korean). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  16. ^ "'돌풍의 진원지' 2030세대는 왜 이준석에 열광했나". hankyung.com (in Korean). 11 June 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  17. ^ "(영상)(국민의힘 전대)이준석 국민의힘 당 대표 선출 9만3392표, 나경원 7만9151표(종합)". www.newstomato.com. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  18. ^ "이준석의 할당제 폐지론…"남녀 같이 100m 뛰자는게 아냐"". Yonhap News Agency (in Korean). 6 June 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  19. ^ "이준석 '할당제 폐지' 공약은 공정할까". KuKiNews (in Korean). 26 June 2021. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  20. ^ "'안티페미' 목청 올리는 이준석 정치적 영토 '이대남' 챙기기?". JoongAng Ilbo. 22 November 2021. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  21. ^ "[Newsmaker] People Power Party's turmoil continues with chairman AWOL". the korean herald. 1 December 2021.
  22. ^ "Yoon, Lee agree to resolve their feud, work together for election victory". yonhap. 3 December 2021.
  23. ^ "'이대남'이 밀어올린 이준석 돌풍". 서울경제 (in Korean). 14 June 2021. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  24. ^ "나경원·이준석, '트럼피즘' 격돌…"분열의 정치"vs"트럼프 비유 교묘"". 이데일리 (in Korean). 1 June 2021. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  25. ^ 이재명 "이준석 열풍, 극우 포퓰리즘으로 흐를까 우려돼" [Lee Jae-myung said, "I'm worried that Lee Joon-seok's craze will lead to far-right populism."]. 한국경제 (in Korean). 4 June 2021. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  26. ^ 이재명, ‘이준석 돌풍’에 “분열을 에너지 삼으면 극우 포퓰리즘 돼” [Regarding the 'Lee Joon-seok gust', Lee Jae-myung said, "If we use division as energy, it becomes far-right populism."]. 조선일보 (in Korean). 4 June 2021. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  27. ^ 이준석 대표 탄생, 세대교체인가 포퓰리즘인가 [Lee Joon-seok was born as the leader of the party. Is this a generational shift or populism?]. 한겨레 (in Korean). 12 June 2021. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  28. ^ "이준석이 '정치하는 이유'…"교육으로 공정한 경쟁할 수 있게 하겠다"". biz.chosun.com (in Korean). 4 June 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  29. ^ "26세 최연소 비대위원 이준석, 한나라당 젊은 피". 기독일보. 28 December 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  30. ^ 이승우 (29 June 2014). "새누리 '당혁신기구' 내일 출범…위원장 이준석". 연합뉴스 (in Korean). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  31. ^ 수정 2018.01.30 15:08, 입력 2018 01 29 17:43 (29 January 2018). "3월 출범 한국독립야구리그, 이준석 총재 취임". 중앙일보 (in Korean). Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  32. ^ "이준석은 누구? 한국 헌정사 최초 30대 0선 당대표". biz.chosun.com (in Korean). 10 June 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2021.

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