In the subheading of a recent profile piece on main opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, The Economist labeled the man it said may be Korea’s next president as “progressive.”

This makes sense to us in Korea because we also use this word to refer to Lee and his party, the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). It distinguishes them from the ruling party, which we call “conservative.” We know what we are referring to.

For example, we can look back at this century and say that we have had three progressive presidents in Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in, and three conservative presidents in Lee Myung-bak, Park Geun-hye and the current leader, Yoon Suk Yeol.

The problem comes when foreigners take our cue and use these words. They start making assumptions about who they should support.

To its credit, The Economist, being the best English-language newspaper in the known universe (not counting The Korea Times, of course), made an effort to dig into the label. The article itself described Lee from a policy platform point of view as a “former progressive” and now a pragmatist.

(I should point out to readers who may be confused as to why the article and subheading didn’t agree. This is common because reporters do not write the subheadings or headlines for their articles. This is........

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