The turbulent life of South Koreas new leader Lee Jae-myungs rise from child laborer to divisive President

Lee Jae-myung was a child laborer with an arm deformity.He attempted suicide.

He later made his way through university and became a highly divisive politician who survived a stabbing attack and struggles with numerous criminal charges.His turbulent life climaxed, as Lee, 60, the candidate of the main liberal Democratic Party, was elected as South Korea’s new president to succeed his conservative archrival Yoon Suk Yeol, who was ousted over his stunning imposition of martial law.There are both hopes and fears about Lee’s win.Supporters think he’s an able leader who can get things done and fix the country’s deep-rooted economic inequality and corruption.

But critics say Lee will likely oppress political opponents and intensify a domestic division.Here’s a look at Lee, whose single, five-year presidency begins on Wednesday:After graduating from an elementary school, Lee had to work at various factories in Seongnam, a city near Seoul, because his family couldn’t afford his secondary education.At a factory manufacturing baseball gloves, he had his left forearm crushed by a press machine, getting a permanent arm disability.Lee said he suffered beating at his factories and hated encountering a girl who was a neighbor when he helped his garbage collector father’s work at a traditional market.Despaired, Lee tried to kill himself twice, both unsuccessfully.

He later got back on his feet and entered Seoul’s Chung-Ang University with a full scholarship, before he became a human rights lawyer.“Hopes and ordeals always come together.The roles of ordeals are not getting people to surrender, but testing how serious and desperate their hopes are,” Lee said in a memoir published in 2017.Lee later entered politics and became Seongnam mayor and governor of Gyeonggi province.

Once a political outsider, Lee rose to prominence in 2016 after he made a series of fiery street speeches criticizing then conservative President Park Geun-hye, who was later removed...