In his third bid for South Korea’s highest office, Democratic Party (DP) presidential candidate Lee Jae-yung has tossed aside the redistributive policies that he once championed in favor of a campaign pledging to rebuild national competitiveness and grow the economy through AI-driven industrial transition

This shift owes much to You Jong-il, a Harvard-trained economist whose policy thinking has quietly shaped the DP’s post-pandemic platform.

Long regarded as a progressive voice for chaebol reform and economic democratization, You has more recently advocated a model of “entrepreneurial government” — one that expands public investment, strengthens industrial policy and repositions South Korea as