Economic and social policy Lee tends to run a policy platform close to the centre-left in the Democratic Party of Korea. Lee advocates for
New Deal liberalism economically and respects the policies of
Franklin D. Roosevelt. On 10 October 2021, Lee said "We will change the graph of economic growth upward with a strong state-led economic revival policy. I'll learn from Roosevelt, who overcame the
Great Depression with left-wing policy ()". Lee announced his overarching economic policy vision as "Transformative and Fair Growth". Lee's view on the Korean economy is that many problems have arisen from the slowdown of economic growth. Low growth leads to fewer opportunities for younger generations, causing fiercer competition and social unrest. This is especially relevant for Korea, as the rules and institutions that have been designed for a high-growth catch-up economy no longer work well for an advanced economy. Lee asserts that the slowdown of economic growth is related to the unfairness and polarization in many areas of the economy: for example, the gap between big monopolies and
small and medium-sized enterprises, the differences between platforms and irregular workers, and inequalities in the real estate market. Unfair conventions distort people's economic incentives in a way that encourages
rent-seeking activities, causing serious inefficiency in resource allocation. Lee's growth strategy, "Transformative and Fair Growth" comprises a set of policies to make the economy fairer and more transformative. Innovations and transformation can be expedited on the basis of right incentives and fairer institutions. This strategy includes industrial policies for a "
Green New Deal" and digital transformation, education reforms to help people adapt to the new environment, balancing market power among economic entities, measures for fair competition and labour market justice, and social safety nets to share risks related to the transformation. His overall policy stance is close to
social liberalism and moderate
progressivism, but there are also some
economic liberal tendencies, such as real estate tax cuts and partial corporate deregulation. This tendency toward economic liberalism has shifted to the right compared in recent years, and increased before and after the
2022 South Korean presidential election. Lee has complemented this shift with occasional rhetoric supporting traditional Buddhism's role in maintaining social cohesion nationwide, despite Lee being a Protestant who has emphasized Christians gaining political power. Unlike most South Korean
liberals, Lee often speaks favorably of former dictator
Park Chung Hee. Lee said on 2 November 2021, "President Park Chung Hee created the
Gyeongbu Expressway to open the way for manufacturing-oriented industrialization," adding, "The Lee Jae Myung administration will build an 'energy highway' that will open a new future while speeding through the decarbonised era."
The Dong-A Ilbo, a conservative media outlet in South Korea, said Lee's state-led policies are closer to Park Chung Hee's authoritarianism than
left-wing populism based on social equality. When Lee evaluated
Chun Doo-hwan's economic performance favourably on 11 December 2021, he was criticized by South Korea's liberal camp. The Justice Party's Sim Sang-jung said of Lee, "You seem to have become a presidential candidate for the [conservative] People Power Party while trying to differentiate yourself from the Moon Jae-in government". The People Power Party's presidential candidate, Yoon Suk Yeol, sarcastically said, "You can be our party's presidential candidate".
Universal basic income One of Lee's signature 2022 presidential campaign pledges was a promise to implement
universal basic income. Lee implemented various basic income programs for residents during his time as mayor and governor. During the 2022 campaign, Lee promised to introduce basic income to young people, farmers and fishermen first. Later, the program would expand to include all citizens, and the basic income amounts would increase. As part of this plan, Lee sought to link the basic income to a
carbon tax and
land value tax. Lee pledged to introduce a universal basic income scheme at the national level for the first time in the world. He pledged to distribute (about ) per year to every citizen and (about US$1,800) per year to youth aged between 19 and 29. Additional basic income would be considered for farmers, children, the elderly, and disabled people. Although the basic income program would start at a modest level, Lee indicated that the long-term goal is to increase basic income to (about US$5,400) per year. Lee proposed the basic income plan would be financed by
land value tax and
carbon tax. Lee stressed that these taxes were necessary to curb real estate speculation and reduce carbon emissions.
Government-backed loans Lee advocated for "basic loans," which would allow any citizen to take out government loans of up to () at an interest rate of around 3 percent, regardless of their credit status. Lee advocated for these
government-backed loan to the public as a safer alternative to borrowing money from loan sharks or private money lenders. Lee argues that the monopoly situation of big platform companies with network effects could be as an obstacle to fair growth of the digital sector, and argues that workers employed by platform enterprises should have new types of employment contracts so that they could be better protected in the digital era. Lee states that South Korea should have future-oriented economic policies that take into account the role of
artificial intelligence and its effect on society. He has stated that this shift will require government support to alleviate difficulties that might arise from the economic adjustment.
Trade policy Lee is known to be a strong supporter of
free trade. He opposes restrictions against South Korean
semiconductor items due to U.S.
trade protectionism.
Education One of Lee's election pledges was to avoid focusing on grades and numbers and instead proceed in the direction of strengthening student's capabilities. Lee said that in middle school teachers would determine student performance through
summative assessments, and that he planned to launch a basic math curriculum through a 'high school credit system' in high school to make up for underachievement. He also suggested introducing AI-based personalized learning and evaluation in some subjects, such as mathematics, to strengthen individualized learning and evaluation throughout elementary and middle school. Lee proposed an 'outdoor school' that fosters the challenges, adventures, cooperation, and curiosity necessary for adolescent growth. It promised to prepare and introduce a curriculum of about 10 hours per semester.
LGBT rights During the 2022 presidential election, Lee stated that he was positive on anti-discrimination laws, but was against abolishing the 'sodomy law' in the military and would not openly support the
LGBTQ community. However, Lee stated more recently that he is against passing anti-discrimination laws with LGBTQ protection unilaterally without social consensus, and would not let it pass under his watch.
Feminism Some media outlets, such as the
New York Times, have characterized Lee Jae Myung as being hostile to
feminism. On 8 November 2021, Lee distributed an article to participants of the National Election Commission stating, "If Lee Jae Myung differentiates himself from the Moon Jae-in government's feminist-first policy, he can gain support from young men". On 10 November, Lee shared a post written by a supporter on
DC Inside on his Facebook page, which read, "Candidate Lee Jae Myung, please stop the 'feminism of madness' (of the Moon Jae-In government). If you promise to do so, I will vote [for you] with great pleasure".
Progressive politician
Sim Sang-jung criticized Lee Jae Myung as a clear "
anti-feminist". Lee Jae Myung created a subsidy for teens to purchase
period products in 2016 and advocated for allowing medical insurance to be used to cover the cost of
abortion and other contraceptive procedures. In this regard, it received positive reviews from feminists.
Time magazine described Lee's women policy as "progressive". He strongly opposes the "abolition of the
Ministry of Gender Equality and Family" () supported by the right-wing conservative camp. Lee criticized Yoon Suk-Yeol's claim that structural
gender inequality and misogyny do not exist in modern South Korean society and insisted on resolving structural gender discrimination. Lee has also called for a public apology for Yoon Suk-Yeol's comments that women are no longer discriminated against. During his presidential campaign in 2022, Lee Jae Myung pledged to strengthen the punishment for sex crimes and expand government support for single-person female households. He also pledged to introduce a sexist workplace report and supervision system to prevent gender discrimination in the workplace. Concerning women's health, he pledged to increase government subsidy of sanitary pads and promote free HPV vaccines to prevent cervical cancer, as well as changing the name of the "Department of Obsterics and Gynecology" to the "Department of Women's Health Medicine".
Immigrant rights Lee is a proponent of
immigrant rights, emphasizing the need to improve the treatment of foreign workers and advocating for a human-rights-focused approach over a solely labor-centric immigration policy. However, he is also conservative on the excessive
inflow of the immigrant workers. He pointed out that using foreign workers with low wages will do harm for domestic workers, so that companies should hire more domestic workers with proper wages rather than hiring foreigners with low wages. Under his presidency, foreign immigrant work visas decreased by 40%, and he instructed to review the system that allows autonomous visa issuance for local government. His government is also pushing for strengthening the Refugee Act, which would ban the denied asylum seeker’s re-application.
Foreign policy at the
51st G7 summit in Kananaskis, Canada, 17 June 2025 Lee revealed his diplomats about the United States and neighboring countries China and Japan as presidential candidates, while seeking friendly relations with North Korea. Lee announced a comprehensive foreign policy plan on 22 August 2021. He emphasized that the aim of foreign policy should be focused on improving the quality of the people and it should be practical to enhance national interest. Lee favours the approach of a conditional rollback of sanctions on North Korea if it takes steps to
denuclearize. While he believes in easing of sanctions, he also advocates immediate restoration of sanctions if North Korea fails to keep its denuclearization promises.
United States the
Grand Order of Mugunghwa, making him the first U.S. president to ever receive the award. Lee supports trade relations with the US. He also believes in good relations with the US military, which has its main bases in his province. However, he has criticized the US-deployed
THAAD anti-missile system for prompting Chinese economic retaliation. Later, he said that as the THAAD is already deployed, the country must make a new decision on the
US-ROK alliance and the progress of denuclearisation of North Korea. Lee expressed his position on the issue between the US and China in South Korea's foreign policy, saying that the US is Korea's only ally and that friendly relations with the US are the most important.
China Lee stated that while the United States is South Korea's only ally, China is also a
strategic partner. He said, "There is no reason to narrow our range of movement by choosing one or the other side. It is competent diplomacy to make the U.S. and China choose to cooperate with us." In response to a Korean Chinese performer wearing a
hanbok at the
opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Lee criticized China for "robbing and invading"
Korean culture. In 2022, Lee said that if a Chinese fishing boat illegally breaks into South Korean waters, he would sink it. In 2024, Lee criticized President Yoon for unnecessarily "antagonizing" China and creating a trade deficit with the country for the first time in decades. He also criticized Yoon's administration on the
issue of Taiwan, saying "We should just say ‘
xie xie’ [to China] and ‘xie xie’ to Taiwan as well. Why do we interfere in cross-strait [China-Taiwan] relations?"
Japan on 17 June 2025 In regards to
relations with Japan, Lee is pursuing a "two track strategy" to promote economic, social, and diplomatic exchange and cooperation while also dealing with
historical issues,
territorial sovereignty, and the life and safety of the people. Lee opposes to military training with the United States in which Japan participates, and he has described those who support training with Japan as "far-right
chinil acts" (). In 2016, Lee said in an interview with an
NHK reporter that Japan is South Korea's
de facto 'enemy country'. He argues that if Japan increases its military power, it will be the first to invade South Korea. However, while critical of "
Japanese imperialism" (), Lee is not opposed to the South Korea-Japan military agreement,
GSOMIA (), to maintain friendly relations with the United States, which calls for military cooperation between South Korea and Japan. GSOMIA is known to be what the United States demands from South Korea and Japan. On 1 March 2018, Lee said that Japan which he referred to as "an aggressor country" (), rather than Korea, should have been divided into two countries following the
Pacific War.
Russia Lee has expressed opposition to the
Russian invasion of Ukraine and does not oppose partial
sanctions against Russia, yet he is considered to hold a relatively favorable perception of Russia by South Korean standards. In February 2022, he drew controversy by criticizing Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy's foreign policy as "incompetent" and "provoking," for which he later apologized. Lee strongly opposes conservative calls for providing lethal arms aid to Ukraine, citing potential negative repercussions for the South Korean economy and security.
Israel In April 2026, a diplomatic dispute occurred between South Korea and Israel after Lee shared a video on social media alleging
Israeli military violence against Palestinians in the
West Bank. Lee compared the actions in the video to historical atrocities, stating there was "no difference" between these acts and
the Holocaust, the "massacre of Jews," or the issue of "
comfort women" (sexual slavery by the Japanese military during WWII). The Israeli Foreign Ministry called Lee's comments "unacceptable" and accused him of trivializing the Holocaust. Lee later clarified that the video dated to 2024 but maintained his criticism, expressing "disappointment" at Israel’s response and urging the country to "reflect on the criticisms from people around the world" regarding human rights and international law.
Vietnam Lee supports stronger
relations with Vietnam, while also endorses measures to welcome more Vietnamese workers, including the
Lai Đại Hàn. == Personal life ==