Lee Myung-bak

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Lore & Background

After his presidency, Lee was arrested on 22 March 2018 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 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.

Reader's Guide

Lee Myung-bak's significance lies in his transition from a successful business career at Hyundai to the highest political office in South Korea. As president, he shifted the government's policy toward North Korea to a more hardline stance amid increased provocations, while also elevating South Korea's international profile through events like the 2010 G-20 Seoul summit. Domestically, his tenure was marked by controversy, including civil opposition and protests against his administration's initiatives. His legacy is complicated by his later conviction for corruption, which led to a 17-year prison sentence before a presidential pardon. His earlier work as mayor of Seoul, particularly the restoration of Cheonggyecheon stream, is often viewed positively. Overall, Lee remains a polarizing figure in South Korean history, embodying both the achievements and the scandals of the country's modern political landscape.

Did You Know?

• Lee Myung-bak was born in Osaka, Japan, and his Japanese name was Akihiro Tsukiyama.
• He earned the nickname 'Raging Bulldozer' after completely dismantling and reassembling a bulldozer to study how it worked.
• Lee became CEO of Hyundai Construction at age 35, making him Korea's youngest CEO in history.
• In 1964, as student council president at Korea University, he was charged with plotting insurrection for participating in demonstrations and served under three months in Seodaemun Prison.
• Lee was granted a special pardon by President Yoon Suk-yeol on 27 December 2022, cancelling the remaining 15 years of his 17-year sentence.

From Osaka to Pohang: A Childhood Forged by Displacement

Lee Myung-bak entered the world in Osaka in December 1941, the fifth of seven children born to a Korean father working as a farm laborer and a mother who managed the household. His parents had crossed into Japan in 1929, nineteen years after the Japanese annexation of Korea. When the war ended, the family attempted to return to Pohang in North Gyeongsang Province, but their vessel was wrecked off Tsushima island, leaving them to lose everything they carried. The trauma did not end there; during the Korean War, Lee watched his older sister and a younger brother perish in the bombardment of Pohang. These losses shaped a young man who attended night school at Dongji Commercial High School on a scholarship before earning a place at Korea University. His political consciousness crystallized in 1964, when, as student council president, he joined demonstrations opposing the Seoul-Tokyo Talks and the terms of Japanese restitution. The state charged him with plotting insurrection; he served just under three months at Seodaemun Prison before returning to a life that would soon pivot toward industry.

The Raging Bulldozer: Three Decades at Hyundai

In 1965, a 23-year-old Lee joined Hyundai Construction, a firm then employing just ninety people. His first assignment sent him to Thailand to help build the Pattani-Narathiwat Highway, the company's first overseas contract worth $5.2 million, which was completed in March 1968. Back in Seoul he was handed the heavy machinery plant, where his hands-on approach earned him the enduring nickname "Raging Bulldozer"—reportedly after he once tore a bulldozer completely apart and reassembled it just to understand its mechanics. The promotion ladder climbed quickly: company director at twenty-nine, chief executive at thirty-five (making him the youngest CEO in Korean corporate history), and chairman by 1988 at age forty-seven. By the time he departed in 1992, Hyundai's workforce had swelled past 160,000. Under his stewardship the firm pivoted from the waning Vietnamese market to the Middle East, delivering landmark projects such as the Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard, Bahrain's Diplomatic Hotel, and Saudi Arabia's Jubail Industrial Harbor. At peak, the company's order book surpassed ten billion dollars, a contribution that helped South Korea weather the oil-shock economic crisis.

The Tenth President: Ambition, Alliance, and Backlash

After serving as Seoul's mayor from 2002 to 2006, Lee Myung-bak won the presidency in 2008 as a candidate of the Saenuri Party (formerly the Grand National Party), taking office as South Korea's tenth head of state. His foreign policy marked a clear shift: facing escalating provocations from the North, he adopted a harder posture toward Pyongyang while simultaneously maintaining open channels of dialogue with Russia, China, and Japan. On the world stage, his administration elevated South Korea's profile, culminating in the 2010 G-20 summit hosted in Seoul. Domestically, however, his tenure was shadowed by sustained public opposition. High-profile government initiatives drew fierce civil protest, and even within his own party the reformist wing found itself in open conflict with the president. In 2011, Paris Diderot University conferred upon him an honorary degree, a gesture of international recognition that contrasted with the domestic friction. His five-year term concluded on 24 February 2013, and he handed the presidency to Park Geun-hye.

Arrest, Conviction, and the Road to Pardon

The post-presidential years brought a legal reckoning that few former heads of state in South Korea have faced. On 22 March 2018, roughly a year after his successor Park Geun-hye was herself detained in connection with the 2016 political scandal, Lee was arrested on charges of bribery, embezzlement, and tax evasion allegedly committed during his time in office. Prosecutors alleged he had accepted bribes totaling eleven billion won and funneled thirty-five billion won into a covert slush fund. In a striking move, just before his arrest he posted a handwritten denial of the charges on Facebook. The courts moved swiftly: on 5 October 2018 he was found guilty and handed a fifteen-year prison sentence. An appellate court later raised that to seventeen years, and on 29 October 2020 the Korean Supreme Court upheld the higher figure. Yet the saga did not end in a cell. On 27 December 2022, President Yoon Suk-yeol issued a special pardon that cancelled the remaining fifteen years of his sentence, restoring Lee to freedom after more than four years behind bars.