Alternative History

Lee In-je (born 11 December 1948) is a Korean politician most famous for his multiple unsuccessful runs to be President of Korea representing a variety of political parties, including his loss to Kim Dae-Jung in 1995 running for the New Korea Party, to his loss in 2002 to Roh Moo-hyun in the primary for Kim's Democratic Party which he had joined as one of Kim's Cabinet ministers, to his unsuccessful run once again for the Liberal Party in 2007 (losing in the primary this time to eventual winner Lee Myung-bak), and finally running one last time in 2012 for the People's Party founded by Ahn Cheol-soo and Sohn Hak-kyu. Lee In-je in 2017 toyed with running for the ULDP to succeed Ban Ki-moon, in whose Cabinet he served, but decided against it allegedly mere hours before he was to announce his campaign, with a staff assembled and donors lined up. He is known in Korea as "the Phoenix" for his constant political rebirth. In 2018 he ran for, and was elected to, the post of Governor of Chungcheong, a position he held previously in the 1990s. He has also served twice as Minister of Labor and once as Minister of Trade.