Book Review: ‘Lee Jae-myung, the Terminator of Insurrection’ by Kim Sang-woo and Baek Seung-dae 📖

A Review of ‘Lee Jae-myung, the Terminator of Insurrection: The World to Meet Again with the Revolution of Light’

Who first coined the term ‘Revolution of Light’ to describe the citizen resistance against the 12.3 Insurrection, likening it to the ‘Candlelight Revolution’? It was the citizens who gathered in front of the National Assembly in Yeouido, holding cheering sticks instead of candles, to call for the impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol after the 12.3 Insurrection last year. The majority were young people, 70% of whom were women. Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, moved by the sight of women fighting with cheering sticks, named this movement the ‘Revolution of Light’ instead of the Candlelight Revolution. 💡

Kim Sang-woo, a Ph.D. in Business Administration, and Baek Seung-dae, a poet, co-authored Lee Jae-myung, the Terminator of Insurrection: The World to Meet Again with the Revolution of Light (March 2025, Magic House), which conveys the candid story of politician Lee Jae-myung, who has overcome numerous threats and challenges. In particular, it analyzes the 12.3 Insurrection and the subsequent moments of the Revolution of Light with sharp insight. 🧐

“Yoon Suk-yeol tried to kill Lee Jae-myung judicially, and far-right forces tried to kill him physically. When that didn’t work, they tried to arrest and kill him recklessly through martial law. But Lee Jae-myung survived.” – From the preface

Regarding the emergency martial law, the Democratic Party, through Rep. Kim Min-seok (Senior Supreme Council Member), had warned of an insurrection several times since the middle of last year. However, the Presidential Office and the People Power Party downplayed it as a mere rumor. Kim Yong-hyun, nominee for Minister of National Defense, also stated at the National Assembly confirmation hearing that martial law was ‘not suitable for the times.’ Lee Jae-myung mentioned the suspicions of martial law in his opening remarks at his first official meeting with Han Dong-hoon, leader of the People Power Party, on September 1, 2024. Surprisingly, Lee Jae-myung’s remarks had a significant impact. 😮

Han Dong-hoon criticized Lee Jae-myung’s ‘martial law preparation’ remarks as ‘irresponsible’ and ‘seditious to national foundation’ at the People Power Party’s Supreme Council meeting on September 2. Not only the political circles but also most of the media at the time dismissed it as improbable. However, an emergency martial law insurrection occurred on the evening of December 3 of that year. 🚨

When the 12.3 Martial Law was declared, many citizens gathered at the National Assembly to confront the martial law troops. Eventually, a resolution to lift martial law was passed a little over two hours after the declaration, at 1:02 AM on December 4, with the participation of 172 opposition lawmakers and 18 members of the ruling People Power Party (loyal to Han Dong-hoon), totaling 190 members. 🙌

About 5,000 citizens who voluntarily gathered in front of the National Assembly building in Yeouido, Seoul, blocked the martial law troops with guns with their bare hands, helping the lawmakers enter the National Assembly. The greatest heroes who prevented martial law were ordinary citizens. The authors also emphasize that about 190 lawmakers, the aides and Democratic Party officials who became the shield of the National Assembly, National Assembly employees, the passive actions of young soldiers deployed as martial law troops, and the real-time broadcasting by the media and YouTube channels all contributed to the lifting of martial law. 🕊️

On December 7, as the impeachment motion was tabled at the National Assembly and awaited voting, about one million citizens filled the road in front of the National Assembly gate, the Seogang Bridge, and Yeouido Park with cheering sticks. The Revolution of Light by citizens had begun. However, the impeachment motion was automatically rejected without a vote due to the boycott of the vote by lawmakers from the People Power Party. On December 14, when the second motion was tabled, about 2 million citizens gathered in Yeouido from the morning. At 3 PM, the National Assembly opened, and at about 5 PM, after the first debate, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik announced the results of the vote. The impeachment motion against President Yoon Suk-yeol was passed with 204 votes in favor out of 300. 🎉

In relation to this, Lee Jae-myung posted on social media on February 16, comparing it to Roh Sang-won’s ‘Death Note,’ about the People Power Party advocating ‘Korean Killing Fields.’ 😮

“That night, the people and lawmakers moved faster than the deployment of martial law troops and narrowly prevented martial law. If martial law had been implemented, a Korean Killing Field would have opened, with abduction, torture, and murder becoming commonplace. The people’s resistance and the military suppression by martial law troops would have been amplified and reproduced, turning the entire Republic of Korea into a sea of blood like the May Gwangju. As written in Roh Sang-won’s Death Note, hundreds or thousands would have been branded as anti-state forces by martial law troops, gangsters, foreign mercenaries, and fake North Korean soldiers, and tens of thousands of people who bought someone’s heart would have died without a trace on the front lines, on uninhabited islands, or on the sea.” – From the book

The authors emphasize that Lee Jae-myung, who jumped into the early presidential election, focused on post-ideology, post-camp, and pragmatism, unlike when he was a presidential candidate in the past. 🤔

“Let’s mobilize any useful prescription, whether it’s a progressive or conservative policy. I will accept any policy that is useful for a world where we all live well together.” – From the book

Furthermore, Lee Jae-myung declared the Democratic Party as ‘moderate conservative’ in a YouTube broadcast on February 18. 😲

“Conservatives are a group that protects sound order and values, but the People Power Party is destroying the constitutional order itself. The People Power Party, which has no common sense and whose job is to hinder the opposition, is not conservative. In the future, the Democratic Party must take on the right as a moderate conservative government in the Republic of Korea. The Democratic Party is a moderate conservative party that values growth. The People Power Party is becoming an extreme right-wing conservative or almost a criminal party.” – From the book

In particular, Lee Jae-myung throws out the topic of ‘Jalsanism,’ which means living well with dignity, beyond ‘Meoksanism,’ which is about growing and sharing the fruits fairly. It implies that we can only share if we grow, and we can reduce disparities if we grow more. 🧐

This book also mentions Lee Jae-myung’s life so far. His profile shows his date of birth as December 22, 1964. However, his actual date of birth is ambiguous. It is true that he was born as the seventh of five sons and four daughters, but his mother did not accurately remember the date he was born. It is said that his parents forgot the date he was born because they were too poor and had difficulty making a living. 😥

Since they lived on a meager salary, his mother did not record or forget the date he was born. When a date of birth became necessary for elementary school registration, they finally went to a fortune teller to determine an appropriate date, which is now his registered date of birth, December 22, 1964. The actual date of birth that Lee Jae-myung knows is around October in the lunar calendar of 1963. Lee Jae-myung’s main account name, ‘ljm631000,’ can be seen as containing such meaning. 🤔

Lee Jae-myung (李在明)’s registered birthday on December 22, 1964, is also the day when independence activist Lee Jae-myung (李在明) launched a revolt to punish Lee Wan-yong, one of the Five Traitors of Eulsa (the Chinese characters for his name are also the same). It is said that his father, Lee Kyung-hee, deliberately set his birthday on this day. His father, Lee Kyung-hee, worked as a non-commissioned officer in the Air Force after being discharged and then worked as a coal mine manager, cleaner, and scrap collector. Lee Jae-myung passed the 28th bar exam and passed away from stomach cancer at the age of 55 in May 1986. His mother, Gu Ho-myeong, passed away on March 13, 2020, at the age of 88. 😔

“Mother, do you remember? In the cold kitchen of the rented house in the remote mountain village of Andong, Gyeongsangbuk-do, where even the water bowl in the room froze and burst, you would light the fire every morning so that our siblings wouldn’t be cold. I remember the sight of you wiping away tears in the corner of the kitchen, exhausted from the difficult life of working in other people’s fields during the day and selling makgeolli (Korean rice wine) and food at night, so that your children wouldn’t go hungry. If you were caught, you would pretend it was because of the spicy smoke, but even if we were dull and young, we could tell the difference.” – From the book

The book also includes the dramatic journey of Lee Jae-myung, such as the rejection of the National Assembly’s arrest warrant for ‘breach of trust in the Daejang-dong case and third-party bribery in the Seongnam FC case’ at the plenary session of the extraordinary National Assembly on February 27, 2023, the 24-day hunger strike against the Yoon Suk-yeol prosecution regime, the passage of the National Assembly’s arrest warrant request and the court’s dismissal of the arrest warrant, the more than half of the 175 seats in the 22nd general election through the nomination revolution, and the knife terror that went back and forth between life and death. 😮

Lee Jae-myung is considered a leading presidential candidate for the opposition party. Perhaps that’s why this book specifically explains Lee Jae-myung’s great dream and vision for the people. However, what came to mind while reading the book was how Lee Jae-myung, who will be running for president, will put into practice the earnest wishes of the various citizens who led the Revolution of Light. 🤔

The authors predicted that the early presidential election to be held on June 3 will be a battle between far-right forces that deny the Constitution of the Republic of Korea and democratic forces that try to protect the Constitution of the Republic of Korea. Meanwhile, there are currently more than 50 books related to Lee Jae-myung. So, in order to differentiate this book from existing books, the authors emphasized that they focused on illegal martial law, insurrection, and the Revolution of Light. Author Kim Sang-woo is a professor of business administration at Andong National University and the chairman of the Andong-Yecheon regional committee of the Democratic Party. The other author, Baek Seung-dae, is a poet and the CEO of Magic House Publishing.