As the opposition leader’s chances of becoming South Korea’s president grow, the image of the fiery anti-American populist is ready to be scrapped.

Unconditional basic income and protection of workers’ rights? We’ll talk about that later…

At his New Year’s press conference on January 23, 2025, Lee Jae-myung emphasized the importance of economic growth supported by the private sector, which contradicts his earlier call for a universal basic income to reduce economic inequality.

In this context, Lee Jae-myung said that he would renege on his pre-election promise to distribute 250,000 won ($171) in vouchers from the state budget to every Korean as part of a program to ensure people had a source of subsistence. Many criticized this promise as a populist move.

Moreover, Lee emphasized that “ideology will not put food on the table” and even quoted the famous phrase that a cat’s color is not as important as its ability to catch mice.

And, while Lee had previously been a staunch supporter of labor laws limiting the workweek to a maximum of 52 hours, he now began to argue that if employees in a particular field don’t mind working overtime, then they should be allowed to do so.

Finally, while the Democrats previously cut the budget as much as possible to spite the government, now, on the contrary, Lee Jae-myung has called on the government to prepare a supplementary budget of at least 30 trillion won ($20.5 billion) to revitalize the national economy and help small businesses.

Lee’s new stance has already been criticized by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, calling on Lee to prioritize workers’ rights. They said that the Leader of the Opposition “must eradicate low wages and long working hours in our society and ensure a work-life balance and safety for our workers.”

Give Donald Trump the Nobel Peace Prize now!

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