[5] Lee was selected for Guus Hiddink's squad for the 2002 FIFA World Cup as the first-choice goalkeeper after the rivalry against Kim Byung-ji.

After the match was ended without a goal until extra time, Lee blocked Spain's fourth shot taken by Joaquín in the penalty shoot-out.

He kept clean sheets in all of South Korea's games in the knockout stage and saved a total of three penalties in shoot-outs (two against Iran and one against Japan).

However, he was suspended from the national team for a year, because he sneaked out from his hotel room and went on a drinking binge in an Indonesian bar along with teammates Kim Sang-sik, Woo Sung-yong and Lee Dong-gook before the match against Bahrain, which South Korea lost.

He played his last game for the national team in a friendly against Nigeria on 11 August 2010 in a 2–1 victory and subsequently retired from international football.