Lee Myung-bak (19 December 1941-) was President of South Korea from 25 February 2008 to 24 February 2013, succeeding Roh Moo-hyun and preceding Park Geun-hye. A Saenuri politician, he previously served as Mayor of Seoul from 2002 to 2006, succeeding Goh Kun and preceding Oh Se-hoon.
Biography[]
Lee Myung-bak was born in Osaka, Japan on 19 December 1941, the son of Korean parents who had immigrated to Japan in 1929. After World War II, the family returned to Pohang in American-occupied southern Korea, and his older sister and younger brother were killed during the bombardment of Pohang during the Korean War. In 1965, Lee came to work for Hyundai Construction, and he was nicknamed the "Raging Bulldozer" while managing Hyundai's heavy machinery plant in Seoul. Lee became a company director at age 29, CEO at age 35, and chairman at age 47, and he grew Hyundai from a company with 90 employees in 1965 to one with 160,000 employees by the time of his retirement in 1992. That same year, he entered politics with the conservative New Korea Party, inspired by Mikhail Gorbachev's capacity to change the world. In 1998, he was forced to resign after his secretary, who had fled to Tajikistan, revealed that Lee had spent excessively on his election campaigns while using taxpayer money. Nevertheless, he was elected Mayor of Seoul in 2002, and he improved the city's infrastructure through the creation of new parks and rapid transit buses. In 2007, he ran for President of South Korea as the Saenuri candidate, and, while he was accused of illegal speculation in the expensive Dogok-dong district of Seoul, he emerged victorious with 48.7% of the vote. Lee supported engaging with North Korea through the furthering of economic ties, and he also supported strengthening South Korea's alliance with the United States. However, Lee's popularity fell to 28% two months after his inauguration and to 17% by June 2008, as his free trade agreement with the United States was unpopular in both countries (especially the lifting of the ban on importing beef from the USA). After a period of protests, a return to political stability led to Lee's popularity recovering to 32.8% and to 51.6% by 2010. While Lee supported low-carbon growth and won the support of middle-aged and senior-citizen Koreans, his tax reduction plans for the rich, failure to privatize or merge national banks, and failure to provide affordable housing were accused of worsening the country's fiscal state, lost him the support of elderly construction and real estate businesspeople. In September 2011, Lee suspended his liberalizing "Mbnomics" economic reform by scrapping plans for a rich tax deduction. Lee was close friends with the President of the United States, Barack Obama, and he also normalized relations with Russia and strengthened South Korea's relations with other Asian countries, including China.
Lee left office at the end of his five-year term in 2013, and, on 22 March 2018, Lee was arrested on charges of bribery, embezzlement, and tax evasion, as he had received ₩11 billion in bribes and channeled assets of ₩35 billion to an illicit slush fund. He was convicted on 5 October and sentenced to 15 years in prison, and his sentence was upheld on 29 October 2020.