He respects Donald Trump and enjoys being compared to Bernie Sanders.
Lee Jae-myung, mayor of a city near Seoul, is rising in opinion polls with about a year to go until South Korea's next presidential election. He wants to break up the country's biggest companies, meet unconditionally with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and throw President Park Geun-hye in prison over an influence-peddling scandal.
"Americans impeached their establishment by electing Trump," Lee, 52, said in an interview Wednesday at his office in Seongnam city. "Our own elections will mirror that."