Lee Myung-bak facts for kids

Quick facts for kids His Excellency Lee Myung-bak
이명박
Official portrait, 2008
10th President of South Korea
In office 25 February 2008 – 24 February 2013
Prime Minister	Han Seung-soo Chung Un-chan Kim Hwang-sik
Preceded by	Roh Moo-hyun
Succeeded by	Park Geun-hye
32nd Mayor of Seoul
In office 1 July 2002 – 30 June 2006
Preceded by	Goh Kun
Succeeded by	Oh Se-hoon
Member of the National Assembly
In office 30 May 1996 – 21 February 1998
Preceded by	Lee Jong-chan
Succeeded by	Roh Moo-hyun
Constituency	Jongno (Seoul)
In office 30 May 1992 – 29 May 1996
Constituency	Proportional representation
Personal details
Born	(1941-12-19) 19 December 1941 (age 82) Osaka, Japan
Political party	Independent (2017–present)
Other political affiliations	Saenuri (until 2017)
Spouse	Kim Yoon-ok ​ (m. 1970)​
Alma mater	Korea University (BBA)
Religion	Presbyterianism
Signature
Korean name
Hangul	이명박
Hanja	李明博
Revised Romanization	I Myeongbak
McCune–Reischauer	Yi Myŏngbak
Pen name
Hangul	일송
Hanja	一松
Revised Romanization	Ilsong
McCune–Reischauer	Ilsong
Japanese name: Akihiro Tsukiyama (月, 山明博)

Lee Myung-bak (Hangul: 이명박; /ˌmjʌŋ ˈbɑːk/; Korean: [i.mjʌŋ.bak̚]; born 19 December 1941) often referred to by his initials MB, is a South Korean businessman and former politician who served as the 10th president of South Korea from 2008 to 2013. Before his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, and the mayor of Seoul from 2002 to 2006.

Early life and education

Lee Myung-bak was born 19 December 1941, in Osaka, Japan. His parents had emigrated to Japan in 1929, nineteen years after the Japanese annexation of Korea. Lee's father, Lee Chung-u (이충우; 李忠雨), was employed as a farm labourer in rural Japan, and his mother, Chae Taewon (채태원; 蔡太元), was a housewife. He was the fifth of seven children.

In 1945, after the end of World War II, his family returned to his father's hometown of Pohang, in Gyeongsangbuk-do, which was then an American-occupied portion of the Korean Peninsula. Lee's sister, Lee Ki-sun, believed that they smuggled themselves into the country to avoid having the officials confiscate the property they acquired in Japan. However, their ship was wrecked off the coast of Tsushima island. They lost all their belongings and barely survived. Lee personally witnessed the deaths of his older sister and a younger brother, who were killed in the bombardment of Pohang, during the Korean War.

Lee attended night school at Dongji Commercial High School in Pohang and received a scholarship. A year after graduation, Lee gained admission to Korea University. In 1964, during his third year in college, Lee was elected president of the student council. That year, Lee participated in student demonstrations against President Park Chung-hee's Seoul-Tokyo Talks, taking issue with Japanese restitution for the colonization of the Korean Peninsula. He was charged with plotting insurrection and was sentenced to five years' probation and three years' imprisonment by the Supreme Court of Korea. He served a little under three months of his sentence at the Seodaemun Prison in Seoul.

In his autobiography, Lee wrote that he was discharged from Korea's mandatory military service due to a diagnosis of acute bronchiectasis while at the Nonsan Training Facility.

Career

In 1965, Lee started work at Hyundai Construction, the company which was awarded Korea's first-ever overseas construction project, a $5.2 million contract to build the Pattani-Narathiwat Highway in Thailand. Shortly after he was hired by the company, Lee was sent to Thailand to participate in the project, which was successfully completed in March 1968. Lee returned to Korea and was subsequently given charge of Hyundai's heavy machinery plant in Seoul.

It was during his three decades with the Hyundai Group that Lee earned the nickname "Raging Bulldozer". On one occasion, he completely dismantled a malfunctioning bulldozer to study its mechanics and figure out how to repair it, only to run it over with another bulldozer that was often operated by Lee himself.

Lee became a company director at the age of 29, five years after he joined the company. He later became the CEO at age 35, becoming Korea's youngest CEO in history. In 1988, he was named chairman of Hyundai Construction at the age of 47.

In 1992, Lee made the transition from business to politics. He joined the Democratic Liberal Party instead of the Unification National Party, founded by Chung Ju-yung. He was elected as a member of the 14th Korean National Assembly (for Proportional representation). Upon his election, he stated that he ran for the office because "after watching Mikhail Gorbachev change the world, I wanted to see if I could do the same." In 1995, he ran for the city of Seoul's mayoral election, but viciously lost to former prime minister Chung Won-sik during the primary of the Democratic Liberal Party.

In 1996, Lee was reelected as a member of the Korean National Assembly, representing Jongno-gu in Seoul. At the election, one of his opponents was future president Roh Moo-hyun, who was ranked third place.

In 1999, Lee was a visiting scholar at the George Washington University, in Washington, DC.

After he became a second-term lawmaker, his former secretary Kim Yoo-chan disclosed that Lee had spent excessively in his election campaign, often at the expense of taxpayers outside of his district. After receiving US$18,000 from Lee, Kim wrote a letter reversing his disclosure and fled to Tajikistan. Lee resigned in 1998 before being fined US$6.5 million for breaking election law and forcing Kim to flee. In the by-election held after his resignation, Roh Moo-hyun was elected as his successor.

Mayor of Seoul

Cheonggyecheon at night

In 2002, Lee ran for mayor of Seoul and won. As the Mayor of Seoul, Lee's most noteworthy projects included the restoration of the Cheonggyecheon stream, the creation of Seoul Forest, the opening of Seoul Forest Park, the construction of a grassy field in front of Seoul City Hall, and the addition of rapid transit buses to the city's transportation system. Lee worked to transform the area around Seoul City Hall from a concrete traffic circle to a lawn where people could gather and make Korea great again. The 2002 FIFA World Cup showed how the area could be used as a homogeneous cultural space, which came to be known as Seoul Plaza. In May 2004, the tape was cut to open a newly built park in the area, a grassy field where Seoul residents could come to relax and take in cultural performances. A major accomplishment during his term as mayor of Seoul was the restoration of Cheonggyecheon, which now flows through the heart of Seoul and functions as a modern public recreation space for people of all ages.

Lee Myung-bak speaking to public in 2007

Presidency (2008–13)

President Lee embraced an aggressive approach to foreign policy, driving initiatives such as Green Korea and Global Korea. He conducted frequent state visits to other countries and extended invitations to foreign counterparts to visit Korea from the time he took office. In 2009 alone, Lee visited 14 countries, including the U.S. and Thailand on 11 occasions and attended 38 summits.

President Lee Myung-bak holds talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in June 2010.

As a result of his efforts, the decision to hold the G-20 Summit in Seoul in November 2010 was passed unanimously at the 2009 Pittsburgh summit. In a historic first, South Korea became the first non-G8 country to take the chairmanship of the forum, and in Toronto, President Lee rallied support for his proposal on creating global financial safety nets and addressing development issues. At the G-20 Summit in Seoul, this led directly to the unanimous endorsement of the Seoul Development Consensus.

Under his administration, South Korea was admitted to the Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Representatives of the DAC member nations met at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Secretariat in Paris, France, in November 2009, and voted unanimously to admit South Korea as the 24th member. The DAC members provide more than 90 percent of the world's aid for impoverished developing nations, and South Korea is the only member nation that has gone from being an aid beneficiary to a donor.

President Lee's diplomatic efforts led to an agreement between Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and the UAE on the construction of a US$20 billion Korean standard nuclear power plant during his visit to the UAE at the end of 2009.

Lee also held bilateral summits with the leaders of the United States, Japan, and People's Republic of China to discuss North Korean affairs. In the wake of the ROKS Cheonan sinking, a joint declaration was issued by the G-8 leaders condemning the North. President Lee succeeded in bringing the Cheonan incident to the forefront in the Chair's Statement for the Asia-Europe Meeting in 2010 at Brussels, drawing member nation support for the South Korean government's stance on North Korea's nuclear issue and stability in Northeast Asia. In addition, President Lee urged Japanese Prime Minister Kan Naoto to put his words on 15 August, Korea's Liberation Day into action. Regular reunions of the families separated by the Korean War drew attention as an international issue after being included in the Chair's Statement.

Under the Lee administration, South Korea successfully concluded a free trade agreement with the European Union on 1 July 2011.

He ended his five-year term on 24 February 2013, and was succeeded by Park Geun-hye.

Post-presidency

On 22 March 2018, Lee was arrested on charges of bribery, embezzlement, and tax evasion alleged to have occurred during his presidency. Prosecutors accused Lee of receiving bribes totaling 11 billion won and channeling assets of 35 billion won to an illicit slush fund. Shortly before his arrest, Lee posted a handwritten statement on Facebook denying the charges. Lee's arrest occurred roughly a year after the arrest of former president Park Geun-Hye, who was arrested on charges stemming from the 2016 South Korean political scandal. Lee was convicted on 5 October 2018 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. On 29 October 2020, the Korean Supreme Court upheld a 17-year sentence against Lee given to him by an appellate court. On 27 December 2022, President Yoon Suk-yeol granted Lee a special pardon, cancelling the remaining 15 years of the sentence.

Personal life

He is married to Kim Yoon-ok and has three daughters and one son. His older brother, Lee Sang-deuk, is a South Korean politician. He is a Christian attending Somang Presbyterian Church.

Awards and honors

National honours

•  South Korea (2013)
  • Recipient of the Grand Order of Mugunghwa

Foreign honours

•  Peru (2008)
  • Grand Cross of Order of the Sun of Peru
•  Kazakhstan (2009)
  • Recipient of the Order of the Golden Eagle
•  Italy (2009)
  • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
•  United Arab Emirates (2011)
  • Recipient of the Order of Zayed
•  Denmark (2011)
  • Recipient of the Order of the Elephant
•  Sweden (2012)
  • Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim
•  Indonesia (2012)
  • Star of the Republic of Indonesia, 1st class

Electoral history

Images for kids

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  Lee Myung-bak at his opening address of the OECD ministerial meeting "The Future of the Internet economy" in Seoul in June 2008

• 

  Lee Myung-bak gives New Year's address on 2009.

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  Lee at APEC on 13 November 2010

• 

  Lee shakes hands with United States President George W. Bush upon his arrival at Camp David, Maryland, United States, 18 April 2008.

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  U.S. President Barack Obama meeting with President Lee Myung-bak at the G20 summit on 2 April 2009 in London

• 

  President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama held a summit meeting at Cheong Wa Dae on 9 October 2009.

See also

In Spanish: Lee Myung-bak para niños

• Lee Myung-bak rat poster incident