内容摘要："[He] spoke so ignorantly... I was like 'umm, hello! We're here you know'," Hanan said.

"[He] spoke so ignorantly... I was like 'umm, hello! We're here you know'," Hanan said.

Lee later applied for and was allowed to sit entrance exams for high school and university, passing in 1978 and 1980 respectively. He went on to study law with a full scholarship, and passed the Bar Examination in 1986.In 1992, he married his wife Kim Hye-kyung, with whom he has two children.

He worked as a human rights lawyer for almost two decades before entering politics in 2005, joining the social-liberal Uri Party, a predecessor of the Democratic Party of Korea and the ruling party at the time.While his poor upbringing has drawn scorn from members of South Korea's upper class, Lee's success in building his political career from the ground up has earned him support from working-class voters and those who feel disenfranchised by the political elite.He was elected mayor of Seongnam in 2010, rolling out a series of free welfare policies during his tenure, and in 2018 became governor of the broader Gyeonggi Province.

Lee would go on to receive acclaim for his response to the Covid-19 pandemic, during which he clashed with the central government due to his insistence on providing universal relief grants for all residents of the province.It was also during this time that Lee became the Democratic Party's final presidential candidate for the first time in October 2021 – losing by 0.76 percentage points. Less than a year later, in August 2022, he was elected as the party's leader.

From that point on, Dr Lee says, Lee dialled back on the controversial, fire-and-brimstone approach for which he had become notorious – opting instead to play it safe and keep a low profile.

"After [Lee's] term as a governor, his reformist image faded somewhat as he focused more on his presidential ambitions," he says. "Still, on certain issues – like addressing past wrongs [during the Japanese colonial era], welfare and corruption – he has built a loyal and passionate support base by taking a firm and uncompromising stance."A spokesman from its Washington embassy said China had recently "repeatedly raised concerns" with the US over its "abuse of export control measures in the semiconductor sector". The US already has restrictions in place on technology exports to China, and on Wednesday paused more sales to China of chip technologies - crucial to semiconductors - and also paused exports of chemicals and machinery.

Pengyu Liu said both sides had maintained communication since the talks in Geneva on 11 May, which had ended on a positive note.However on Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had said trade talks with China had become "a bit stalled".

Bessent told Fox News on Thursday: "I think that given the magnitude of the talks, given the complexity, that this is going to require [leaders of both the countries] to weigh in with each other."Trump's global tariff regime was dealt a blow on Wednesday following a ruling that he had exceeded his authority. His plans have been temporarily reinstated after the White House appealed the decision.