Lee Myung-bak << lee myuhng bahk >> (1941-…) was president of South Korea from 2008 to 2013. He belongs to the conservative New Frontier Party (formerly the Grand National Party).
Lee Myung-bak was born on Dec. 19, 1941, in Osaka, Japan. After World War II ended in 1945, Lee’s family returned to Pohang, in what is now South Korea. Lee worked his way through college at Korea University in Seoul. He graduated in 1965 with a degree in business administration. That same year, he went to work for Hyundai Construction. During his time at Hyundai, he earned the nickname “the bulldozer” for his strong work ethic and his ability to successfully perform difficult tasks. In 1977, at age 35, he became the company’s youngest chief executive.
Lee entered politics in 1992, winning a seat in the National Assembly. He was reelected in 1996. In 1998, however, he resigned after it was revealed that he had broken election laws by spending excessive amounts of money on his campaign. From 2002 to 2006, Lee served as mayor of Seoul. During this period, he initiated a number of projects to tackle pollution and traffic congestion in the city. Through these efforts, he earned a reputation as an environmentalist.
Lee won a landslide victory in the 2007 presidential election. He promised to revive South Korea’s economy, improve relations with the United States, and work with North Korea if it abandoned its nuclear weapons program. He took office in 2008. His term ended in 2013, and Park Geun-hye succeeded him as president.
In 2018, Lee was convicted of corruption. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He appealed the conviction, but in 2020, the Central District Court in Seoul upheld the conviction and increased his sentence to 17 years. Lee then appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court’s decision in late 2020. However, Lee received a special pardon from South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol in December 2022.
