Interview: Lee Jun-seok promises 'no-strings-attached' Kim Jong-un summit if elected

In 2022, Rep. Lee Jun-seok was in campaign mode, heading the push to get President Yoon Suk Yeol elected. Three years later he is gearing up for another campaign, this time to replace the man he championed.

Just days away from turning 40 at the time of writing, Lee would be one of the youngest in South Korean history to launch a presidential bid — if Yoon is removed from office by the Constitutional Court.

Lee was among the first South Korean politicians to openly declare their presidential ambitions following Yoon's impeachment over his martial law declaration on Dec. 3, 2024.

The lawmaker met with The Korea Herald on Thursday, two days after he was chosen as the presidential candidate-to-be of the minor Reform Party in a party vote. He founded the party ahead of the 2024 general election after a public rift with the ruling People Power Party that he once chaired.

Lee, who led Yoon's 2022 presidential campaign as then-head of the People Power Party, acknowledged he had his differences with Yoon at the time, but was surprised by his actions in December.

"I knew Yoon to be a very weird guy. But never did I think he would pull something like martial law," he said.

He believes Yoon expects to be acquitted and reinstated by the Constitutional Court. But why would he think that?

“Because he is very weird," Lee replied. "I mean, what a ridiculous man.”

On regrets about his role in getting Yoon elected, Lee said the 2022 election was about choosing the "lesser of two evils."

The other choice that year was Democratic Party of Korea candidate Lee Jae-myung, now chair of the party.

"If the Democratic Party wants to stick to its bad product (Lee Jae-myung) again this time, then I'd say go for it. I'd like to see them try," he said.

"If President Yoon Suk Yeol is dog meat, Democratic Party Chair Lee Jae-myung is rotten meat," he said, referring to one of his most controversial lines from years back.

In a tearful press conference held a few months after Yoon's victory, Lee made an inflammatory analogy about the president he helped into office.

"I'm ashamed of having dressed dog meat as lamb," he said at the time, after the People Power Party's ethics committee suspended him as party leader over allegations that he had received favors from a businessperson in 2013.

Lee, who won a seat in the National Assembly with his Reform Party last year, said he did not think he would be going back to the People Power Party.

"The People Power Party wrongfully accused me of taking sexual bribes, the charges of which were dismissed by the prosecutors, and never once apologized. I doubt anybody in that party has the guts to admit they were wrong, so I don't think that's going to happen," he said, when asked if he would consider merging parties.

This leaves Lee, as the leader of a relatively new party, with the task of establishing positions on key areas of Korean politics, including its stance toward North Korea. Would Lee be willing to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un?

Lee said that if he becomes the president of South Korea, he would propose a "no-strings-attached" summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and "just talk it out."

"I would propose that we meet first to talk about anything and everything, and whatever we say will stay in that room. It will be a meeting that is held just for the sake of conversation, with no conditions or objectives. Just talk it out first, and leave whether we can work something out for later."

Lee said he was interested in learning about the North Korean leader on a more personal level.

"I can't say I have a lot of sympathy for Kim Jong-un as a leader. But I am interested in understanding more about the double inner life he must lead, having spent his childhood in Switzerland. Surely, he is familiar with life in a free democracy, and yet he has become this symbol of a despotic rule," he said.

"I think a no-strings-attached conversation is going to be important for that reason, to understand what's going on beneath his exterior."

Lee said as a leader, his being a graduate of Harvard University could work to South Korea's benefit in its diplomacy with the US.

"As a politician in South Korea, I have found my Harvard background to be rather a hindrance. But in Washington, my network from Harvard is going to be a leg up," he said. "I say this half-jokingly, but being from Harvard comes off well in the US. I don't really brag about it here, but I could use it for our country's interests if I have to."

Lee said his time at Harvard gave him an insider understanding of the Washington elite, which could make him a good counterpart to US President Donald Trump.

"President Trump himself likes to stress that he graduated from an Ivy League school," he said. "I would be able to communicate with US officials without an interpreter in the room, and have very nuanced, detailed discussions. But it's more than not having any language barrier. I have a deep understanding of the US elite from my Harvard days. I know their ways, I speak their lingo."

Lee believes Trump's recent showdown with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House was going to have security ramifications that South Korea could turn to its advantage.

"I think it's possible we could get the same treatment the Ukrainian president got from some Republicans. In this age of America Firstism and isolationism, it's so important that South Korea has a leader who can navigate these risks and possibly, opportunities," he said. "Europe is now looking to rearm, and in this atmosphere, South Korea could have more leeway from the US on the defense front."

On whether South Korea should develop its own nuclear capabilities, a debate that was rekindled here after the Trump-Zelenskyy blowup, Lee said the country needed to at least secure nuclear-powered submarines to deter nuclear threats from North Korea.

"The only way to prevent North Korean submarines from launching (submarine-launched ballistic missiles) from behind our backs is to deploy nuclear-powered submarines along our sea border with North Korea. Satellites or aerial patrol surveillance alone cannot be enough," he said.

Lee described Trump's approach to diplomacy as "ends justifying all means."

"For the ultimate goal of keeping China in check, President Trump seems willing to go the length of thawing ties with Russia. I think he could take the same approach with the Korean Peninsula," he said, on concerns that Seoul may be left out of Trump's negotiations with North Korea.

Lee traced what he observed to be a rise in anti-China sentiment among some young South Koreans back to Beijing's retaliation against Seoul over the 2016 deployment of the US anti-ballistic missile system. Called the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, the system was launched with the aim of countering missile threats from Pyongyang.

"We all know the THAAD system can only be used for defensive purposes. The aggressive backlash from China over such defensive deployment of weapons, when we are faced with very real threats from North Korea, left a strong sense of resentment among younger generations of South Korea," he said.

Another major event that left a mark on many young South Koreans was China's crackdown on Hong Kong, according to Lee.

"It's China that broke the deal of having two systems for 50 years. China has become untrustworthy in the eyes of young South Koreans who are worried Hong Kong might not be the only victim of Beijing's politics," he said.

Lee said he has raised the issue of anti-China sentiment with Chinese diplomats he has met.

"I always tell the Chinese diplomats that if China isn't sensitive about how South Korea's young generations feel about these matters, bridging the rift will be difficult," he said

Lee, the mastermind behind Yoon's presidential election pledge to abolish the country's Gender Ministry. Asked if he would revive that policy, he said South Korea needed its own version of the kind of shakeup happening in the US.

"South Korea definitely needs a government efficiency program that is different from how Elon Musk, the head of the US DOGE, is doing it," he said. "But it's not just the Gender Ministry. There are other ministries that don't really need to be a separate, standalone ministry."

He said much of what the Gender Ministry does with women's rights could be reassigned to the Employment Ministry, while the Unification Ministry could be incorporated into the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Lee, who is known to enjoy wide support from men in their 20s and 30s, said expanding his support beyond his core base was something that should come naturally.

"I don't believe it's something you can force. I think when the election becomes a reality and we have a competition of policies and ideas, support will follow naturally," he said.

Asked how many votes he was aiming to collect as a third party candidate, Lee replied, "I'm in it to win it."