Lee Dam

Empress Lee Dam
Empress of Joseon
Incumbent
Assumed office 8 March 2020 (2020-03-08)
Preceded by	Emperor Lee Gun
Personal details
Born	Lee Dam (1993-04-05) 5 April 1993 Gyeongbokgung Palace, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Joseon
Education	Seoul National University

Lee Dam(이담, 李𣹼) is the 30th empress of the Joseon. She became the empress of the Joseon after her father, Lee Gun, abdicated the emperor's position to Lee Dam for health reasons. She was also the first female monarch of the Joseon.

Lee Dam is the first female imperial family member to meet the eligibility criteria for the throne since the adoption of the democratic constitution in 1921 made it possible for a female imperial family member to succeed to the throne. She was born in April 1993 to be the first daughter and first child of Emperor Lee Gun and Empress Park Soon Hyang.

Lee Dam is the empress of Joseon and has formal and non-substantial authority over diplomacy, military, and personnel affairs. Although the prime minister has real legal powers regarding diplomacy, military, and personnel rights, Lee Dam can give formal approval to the prime minister's decision as the constitutional head of state.

Early life

Lee Dam was born on Apr. 5, 1993, at Gyeongbokgung Palace Imperial Hospital. She was the first child of Emperor Lee Gun, so she was granted the right to succeed to the throne upon birth. Lee Dam was educated inside the Imperial Household by age 7 according to the law. When she turned 7, Emperor Lee Gun instructed Lee Dam to receive an education at a regular elementary school in Seoul. According to Emperor Lee Gun, the decision was made to help Lee Dam develop sociability in an open environment after leaving a closed environment.

Lee Dam was educated at a regular school, not an imperial family, after the age of seven, and graduated from a regular high school in Jongno, Seoul, in 2012. Because her academic performance was excellent, Lee Dam was able to enter Seoul National University as the top student. She chose political science as her major and graduated from the university after earning a bachelor's degree in 2016.

Since June 2016, Lee Dam joined and worked as a researcher at East Asian Policy, a diplomatic research think tank in Joseon. However, she left the company in 2018 to receive royal successor training. In 2020, two years after Lee Dam began to receive training for Lee Gun's successor, Emperor Lee Gun abdicated the throne to Lee Dam following a doctor's opinion that he needed medical care to recover his health.

After the succession of the throne

Lee Dam officially succeeded to the throne on Mar. 8, 2020. At the time, Lee Jae-Yeon was serving as prime minister, and Lee Jae-Yeon gave Lee Dam a weekly briefing. According to Lee Dam, Lee Jae-Yeon gave Lee Dam advice on the virtues and laws a leader should possess, and it was enough to remedial Lee Dam's short period of royal succession training.

The most recent major political event during Lee Dam's reign was the November incident. During the November incident, Lee Dam responded to a diplomatic call from Archinia seeking to debunk the coup plot and led negotiations with then-Chief Justice Park Yohan.

Personal Life

Lee Dam does not wear royal robes, except for some public appearances. Instead, she is known for preferring casual everyday attire. Even in non-political formal events, Lee Dam prefers relatively casual attire, rather than royal robes.

Lee Dam is known to have many non-royal friends because of his experience living at a regular school after age 7. She often invites her friends to visit reception centers at Gyeongbokgung Palace. But in this process, she uses the privy purse that is paid to her, not the royal public money.