Alternative History
Lee Myung-bak

Lee Myung-bak
Portrait of Lee Myung-bak

9th President of Korea
May 15, 2007 - May 15, 2012

Predecessor Lee Hoi-chang
Successor Ban Ki-moon

Mayor of Hanseong
July 1 2002 - June 30 2006

Born 19 December 1941
Spouse Kim Yoon-ok
Political Party Democratic Liberal 1991-2010; ULDP 2010-present
Profession Politician, businessman

Lee Myung-bak (born 19 December 1941) is a Korean political figure who from 2007 to 2012 served as the President of Korea. A member of the Democratic Liberal Party, he won the 2007 Presidential election over a splintered opposition in Roh Moo-hyun, Won Yoo-chul and Sohn Hak-kyu. His Presidency would see an end to the austerity measures imposed by the Lee Hoi-chang administration, increased ties with France and the Versailles Pact bloc as opposed to the previous "benign neutrality" policy of his predecessors since the restoration of democracy.

While initially seen as a moderate, his Democratic Liberal Party merged with New Korea in 2010 to form the United Liberal Democratic Party (ULDP), and he increased military spending shortly after pardoning convicted former military dictatorship-era leaders, including dictator Chun Doo-hwan, who had been serving a life sentence. Other government policies were repealed after mass protests. Lee Myung-bak's chosen successor, Lee Jae-oh, ran for the ULDP presidential nomination in 2012 but the nominating process stalled out, with neither Lee nor two of the other favorites - Kim Moon-soo, the Governor of Gyeongi, or Chung Mong-joon, a billionaire member of the National Assembly - able to secure a majority. Eventually, longtime diplomat and former Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon emerged as a compromise candidate with Kim as his prime minister-designate. Ban would subsequently narrowly defeat Chung Dong-young in an election that suddenly became more about the ongoing Asian Spring and foreign policy than about the ethical troubles of the two Lee administrations. In 2018, Lee was arrested and indicted in a massive bribery scandal that swept across the ULDP.

Prior to his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction and the mayor of Hanseong. He is married to Kim Yoon-ok and has three daughters. His older brother is Lee Sang-deuk , a Korean politician. He attends the Somang Presbyterian Church. Lee is a graduate of Korea University and also received an honorary degree from the University of Paris on May 13, 2011. It was during his three decades with the Hyundai Group that Lee earned the nickname "Bulldozer". In one instance, he completely dismantled a malfunctioning bulldozer to study its mechanics and figure out how to repair it. During his tenure as mayor, he was noted for the restoration of the Cheonggyecheon, a popular stream in Hanseong.