The official campaign season for the 2025 South Korean presidential election started on May 12. What to expect from the three major candidates, Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea, Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party and Lee Jun-seok of the Reform Party? What are some of the major issues confronting the candidates as they make their case for the people's vote on June 3?
Joining Mark Lippert to discuss this and much more are Aram Hur from Tufts University and Scott Snyder from the Korea Economic Institute of America.
Aram Hur is the Kim Koo Chair in Korean Studies and Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. Her research focuses on nationalism and democracy, with special attention to issues of identity, integration, and democratic support in East Asia. She was selected as the 2021 Sherman Emerging Scholar by The Korea Society, a 2018-19 CSIS US-Korea NextGen Scholar, and is the recipient of the 2023 Gold Chalk Award for Teaching from the University of Missouri. She holds a Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University, an M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a B.A. with honors from Stanford University.
Scott Snyder is President and Chief Executive Officer at the Korea Economic Institute of America (KEI). Previously, he was a Senior Fellow for Korea studies and director of the program on U.S.-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations from 2011 to March 2024. Mr. Snyder is the author of The United States-South Korea Alliance: Why It May Fail and Why It Must Not (December 2023) and South Korea at the Crossroads: Autonomy and Alliance in an Era of Rival Powers (January 2018). Mr. Snyder received a BA from Rice University and an MA from the regional studies East Asia program at Harvard University.
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