Could I, Sam Szuchan, an American citizen, become president of South Korea? Yes, actually. And an American has already come closer than anyone. He is John Linton, who was a member of Korea's National Assembly until resigning last December. Linton was born in Korea in 1959 to American missionaries and grew up in the small city of Suncheon in southwest Korea. In 1984, his father (also a missionary) was involved in a head-on collision with a tour bus driven by a drunk driver. There was no ambulance in Suncheon so he was put in a taxi to go to a hospital in Gwangju, but he died on the way, in the back seat of the taxi. Linton later said, "If he could at least have gone lying down, maybe." So in 1992 he bought a 15-seater van and got carpenters and welders to turn it into an ambulance in a week, with a bed to lie on. It became the model for ambulances across Korea. In 2012, Korea gave him a unique honor: he was the first person to be granted special naturalization, given to people who have made special contributions to the country. He had once said that if he went into politics he hoped the conservative People Power Party would have a president from the southwest area where he grew up. In 2024, they made him one of their proportional candidates (allocated based on the proportion of the total vote each party gets) and he was elected. He resigned last December. Can he run for president? The Korean constitution says you must be at least 40 on election day and eligible to be elected to the National Assembly, which all citizens are. The election law adds that you must have lived in Korea for five years. Nowhere does it say you have to be a citizen from birth. Linton is 66 and has lived in Korea most of his life. He meets all the requirements. To run for president, one must post a deposit of 300 million won (about $211,000), which is returned only if one gets 15% of the vote or more. Without a party's support, one also needs 3,500 signatures from at least five provinces and at least 700 from each. For me, the road is longer. I would have to live in Korea for five years to qualify for permanent residency, then apply for citizenship, pass Korean language and civics tests and wait about 19 months for the process to complete. Then I would take an oath at a formal ceremony and be given a year to give up my American passport. So the legal question is settled for both of us. But what the law can't do is put either of us on a ballot. Linton got into the National Assembly via a party list, where voters choose a party, not an individual. No Korean political party has ever nominated a naturalized citizen for an election in which voters are asked to choose him by name, and that's the obstacle that would be unavoidable for a presidential run. - @samuelszuchan