Who works inside
Lee Jae-myung's presidential office?

How the staff turned over

Of the 134 officials at grade 5 or above on the August 2025 roster, 40 (29.9%) left within a year - 13 of them to run in the June 3 local and by-elections - while 125 new officials arrived, bringing the August 2026 headcount to 219. Ninety-four served through both years. The analysis covers the 259 people on the two rosters combined.

What careers led to the presidential office?

In year one the largest group came from politics - parties, campaigns, Assembly aides and elected office - with 62 people (46%), more than six times the 10 career bureaucrats. Year two looks very different: bureaucrats from central ministries jumped from 10 to 56, nearly matching the political group (59), whose share fell from 46% to 27%. An office built on campaign and parliamentary networks shifted its center of gravity toward the bureaucracy in year two. 'Unknown' means no public record could be verified; the count grew with the year-two influx.

Full roster: secretary level (grade 1) and above

All 69 officials at secretary level (grade 1) or above have verified identities and main careers. Politics leads with 22 (32%) but falls short of a majority; the rest spread across academia and research (11), central-government bureaucrats (9), media (7), legal, private-sector and civic/union backgrounds (6 each), and local government (2). Click a person for career details and sources checked by human reporters.

Who came from outside the Democratic Party?

Of the 103 people with a verified party record, 93 (90%) followed a single Democratic Party path. Only 10 passed through other parties: 8 came to the DP from progressive parties, 1 from a conservative party, and 1 from the Rebuilding Korea Party. People with no party record grew from 30 in year one to 95 in year two - mostly bureaucrats seconded from ministries.

When did they first join Lee Jae-myung?

Of the 206 people whose first tie to Lee can be dated, 77 knew him before the 2025 presidential election and 129 joined during the campaign or after he took office. Year one was a 'founding member' office - 57 early ties versus 51 later ones - but year two flipped to 56 versus 115. The largest early-tie group is the 2022 campaign (29), and 31 people go back to his Seongnam mayor or Gyeonggi governor days. Among grade 1 and above, 66% of year-one staff (27 of 41) had pre-election ties.

Which politicians are they linked to?

134 of the 259 have a verified tie to a specific politician from before their presidential-office days. Direct links to President Lee Jae-myung dominate with 93, followed by Moon Jae-in (12), Park Won-soon (8), Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Dong-yeon (6 each), Park Chan-dae and Lee Han-ju (4 each), and Kang Hun-sik and Chung Sye-kyun (3 each).

How they were hired

Political-tie hires lead overall with 111 of 259 (43%). They dominated year one at 81 of 134 (60%), then fell to 85 of 219 (39%) in year two as career-civil-servant postings grew from 8 to 53. Placement follows a clear pattern: political-tie hires cluster under the Chief of Staff (78 of 111), bureaucrat postings under the Policy Chief (37 of 55). Even at grade 1 and above, the balance moved from 25 political-tie versus 14 expertise hires in year one to 26 versus 24 in year two.

Demographics (grade 1 and above only)

The 69 officials at secretary level or above average 56.1 years of age as of 2026; 36 were born in the 1960s - more than half - and 26 in the 1970s. Thirteen (19%) are women. By undergraduate degree, 21 (30%) went to Seoul National University; add Korea and Yonsei and the SKY total reaches 37 (54%). Among the 60 with a known home region, the Seoul metro area leads with 18, then Busan/Ulsan/South Gyeongsang (14) and Gwangju/Jeolla (13) - the southeast and southwest together outnumber the capital region.

Methodology and caveats