Rep. Lee Jae-myung, 61, is making a bid for the presidency once again as a Democratic Party of Korea candidate, three years after he lost by the razor-thin margin of 0.73 percent to now-ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol in March 2022.

When Lee clinched the Democratic Party presidential nomination on April 27, it wasn't a surprise to anyone. Lee's lead over his two challengers, Kim Kyoung-soo and Kim Dong-yeon, was so overwhelming that the primary wasn't even a competition.

But the win was emotional for Lee nonetheless. When he was summoned back to the stage after the final tally of votes and pronouncement of him as the primary winner, his voice cracked as he gave his acceptance speech. Standing close to reporters in the small briefing room, his face beamed. The typically press-shy liberal, noticeably upbeat, took more questions than usual.

When June 3, the day of the presidential vote, comes, Lee said, a "brand new Korea will be born."

Lee painted his presidential victory as "what will end the continuing insurrection," suggesting that the attempt to take power through Yoon's botched martial law declaration on Dec. 3 was not over.

Lee's road to the candidacy, leading the entire field of contenders in South Korea's presidential election, has been nothing short of dramatic.

While Lee now has an iron grip on the Democratic Party, it hasn't always been that way. In September 2023, he was publicly humiliated when 29 fellow lawmakers of his party, of which he was chair, voted in favor of his arrest.

The vote was about whether to give the National Assembly's consent to the court's request to issue an arrest warrant against Lee, as sitting lawmakers cannot be arrested unless there is a majority support in the legislature.

Lee came close to facing arrest warrant, with several lawmakers of his own party turning against him. This "utterly humiliated him," according to a Democratic Party lawmaker who asked not to be named.

The Democratic Party went through an overhaul for the Assembly election in April 2024, where "only those who passed Lee's loyalty test," as one lawmaker put it, survived the party's nomination process. Most of the lawmakers who voted for Lee's arrest weren't given the chance to run.

In January 2024, Lee had to undergo major surgery after he was stabbed in the neck by a man posing as a supporter in Busan.

"I honestly believe that one of the highest risks facing Lee this election is a terrorist attack," Rep. Kim Byung-kee told The Korea Herald over the Democratic Party primary.

Since the assassination attempt, Lee has been spotted wearing a bulletproof vest in public. The Democratic Party claims it "has it on good authority" that attacks are being plotted to target Lee, who said he would be forgoing handshakes and other physical contact with voters on the campaign trail for his safety.

In polls, Lee has a commanding lead over every one of his conservative rivals. While the Democratic Party is trying not to get ahead of itself, most forecasts say Lee's win is the most likely outcome of the upcoming June 3 election.

"It would take an act of God for Lee not to win," another Democratic Party lawmaker told The Korea Herald without wishing to be named, even with May 1's Supreme Court ruling that could potentially threaten Lee's eligibility to run.

In the latest dramatic turn of events, the Supreme Court reversed an earlier ruling finding Lee not guilty of making false statements during his appearance as a witness at a parliamentary hearing over the 2022 presidential election race.

The appeals court must now revisit the case, the ruling for which can theoretically come before the election, only 28 days away. If Lee is sentenced to a fine higher than 1 million won ($717), he could be stripped of his ability to run for office for a decade and forced to drop out mid-race. But this scenatio is "nearly impossible," according to a lawyer who was on Lee's defense team.

"Even if the appeals court holds a hearing around mid-May, which is already early, we have a legally set minimum of 27 days to submit our response. By which time, it will be already well past the Election Day -- it's just math," the lawyer, who wished not to be named, told The Korea Herald.

So far, Lee appears unscathed in the polls.

In a Gallup Korea poll taken May 3-4, just after the Supreme Court's ruling, 49 percent of respondents said they would vote for Lee as president in a three-way race against the People Power Party's Kim Moon-soo, who snagged 33 percent, and the third Reform Party's Lee Jun-seok, 6 percent.

When up against Han Duck-soo, who resigned as acting president and prime minister to enter himself, Lee still beat him 49 percent to 36 percent.

The poll surveyed 1,006 voters aged 18 and up, with more information available on the National Election Commission website.

The tone and manner in which Lee carries himself and brands his campaign are a lot more refined and nuanced now than the last two times he ran.

Lee's victory strategy is to "minimize exposure," according to a top campaign official who also requested anonymity. Lee has been announcing his policy pledges on Facebook, and having "pooled" events to limit reporters' access to him.

"We want nothing that could disturb the trajectory that we're on," the official told The Korea Herald.

Lee opting to keep a low profile is partly attributable to the slew of salacious rumors and scandals that has followed him throughout his public life, according to an aide who has worked for him since his days as governor of Gyeonggi Province.

Ever since he stepped into the public eye for the first time in 2006, Lee's been in one scandal after another, including a highly publicized family drama involving his late older brother, an affair with an actress he has denied, and the suicide deaths of people linked to allegations against him.

"Lee speaks in almost a whisper even when it's just us two in the room. He has gotten into a habit of taking excessive caution in everything, because he has had so many things go wrong in the most unexpected ways," the aide told The Korea Herald.

In 2025, Lee is carefully treading the path to presidency, which seems "so close it feels like he could reach out and touch it," another one of Lee's long-time aides, who also requested anonymity, said.

Lee, long seen as a fiery, anti-establishment left-winger, is in some ways shedding that persona. Lee, who had once run on the promise of "becoming the first working-class president," has dialed down his progressive policies, such as universal basic income.

"The Democratic Party is a party of moderate conservatives," Lee stressed at Democratic Party leadership meetings in February, in what many interpreted as a carefully strategized rhetoric to court conservatives.

The tale of Lee's climb up the ladder of political prominence is something of a Korean dream.

At 54, Lee first declared for president in January 2017 at the watch manufacturing factory in Seongnam, where he worked as a boy just out of primary school to help his family make a living for six years.

"The kid who once used to work at this factory is setting out to be president," Lee said, with his mother on the podium beside him. His mother, he said, "cried and cried," when he had his arm crushed in a presser, an injury that left him with a permanent disability.

Despite not receiving a formal education, Lee got into Chung-Ang University in Seoul, a reputable but not traditionally considered prestigious school, and engaged in civic activism as a practicing lawyer before setting foot in politics.

Lee, widely seen as one of the rare "self-made" men in Korean politics today, has more than once referred to himself as an "outsider from the fringe of society."

Hong Joon-pyo, a prominent conservative, once said, "Lee is someone who is fueled by rage."

Lee has come under scrutiny over his criminal record. He has four past criminal convictions, including one for drunk driving and another for obstructing the execution of public duties. In addition to these, he is the main defendant in five ongoing criminal cases.

Lee's beef with the press and affinity for YouTubers and online news outlets is also an aspect of him that concerns politics watchers. Over his two terms as the Democratic Party's chair, Lee was very reticent in the way he interacted with the press.

"While the Democratic Party has criticized Yoon over his relationship with the press, Lee has been no friend to the media, either. How Lee handles the media as president, should he win, will be one of the things to watch out for," a People Power Party insider told The Korea Herald.