Lee Ju-ho
Lee Ju-ho is a South Korean economist who served as the acting president of South Korea from May to June 2025 and acting prime minister of South Korea from May to July 2025. He has also served as the deputy prime minister and education minister from 2022 to 2025.
He is a professor at the KDI School of Public Policy and Management. From 1 May 2025 to 4 June 2025, after the impeachment of president Yoon Suk Yeol, resignation of prime minister Han Duck-soo, and subsequent resignation of minister of economy Choi Sang-mok, Lee was the acting President of South Korea, acting Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Education concurrently.
Early life
Lee Joo-ho was born in Chilgok County, North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea on 17 February 1961.Lee holds three degrees in economics – a bachelor's and a master's from Seoul National University and a doctorate from Cornell University.
Early political career
He served as a Korea Development Institute professor before entering the 17th National Assembly as a proportional representative in 2004. In January 2009, he served as the First Vice Minister of Education, Science and Technology in the Lee Myung-bak government, and as Minister in 2010, serving in that role until 2013. He was appointed Minister once more in 2022 in the Yoon Suk Yeol government.As minister, Lee oversaw several key education changes. He established the Neulbom School program, which provided free after-school care to young elementary students, and oversaw efforts to increase medical school enrollment by 2,000 seats, which ultimately failed. He also advocated for the use of digital textbooks, particularly artificial intelligence-based textbooks introduced this school year.
Acting presidency and premiership (2025)
On 2 May 2025, Lee ascended to the presidency and the premiership, which came after the sudden resignations of the previous acting president and prime minister, Han Duck-soo and the deputy prime minister, Choi Sang-mok. The presidency itself was already vacant due to the impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol. As acting president, Lee directed the military to elevate its preparedness posture to the "highest level," and called for meticulous preparations to ensure the "orderly" and "fair" conduct of the presidential election on June 3. Lee also directed acting Defense Minister Kim Seon-ho to thoroughly oversee military surveillance and readiness and to elevate the country's military preparedness posture to the highest level, to be able to respond "rapidly and sternly" to any and all types of provocations, also directing all public servants to maintain strict discipline when it came to their work and political neutrality ahead of the presidential election.Lee acted as the prime minister until 3 July 2025, when Kim Min-seok's nomination for the position was confirmed.