New Korean President Embodies Nation's Rise from Destitution
s a child, Lee Myung-bak once survived by eating grain residue from a brewery, leaving him with nothing but water to fill his empty stomach at school lunch breaks.
The farmhand's son later rose from office worker to the heights of South Korean industry in a story known as the ``salaryman legend.'' On Wednesday, Lee wrote the latest chapter in his success story after winning South Korea's presidency on his 66th birthday.
Although there is no shortage of rags-to-riches tales in this Asian nation that transformed itself into one of the world's largest economies from the rubble of the 1950-53 Korean War, what makes Lee's story different is just how far he has climbed.
Lee was born in Osaka, Japan in 1941 into the family of a stock farm laborer.
His family returned to Korea empty-handed after the end of Japanese colonial rule on the Korean peninsula in 1945. The overloaded ship they traveled on sank with all their belongings, although the passengers were rescued, Lee wrote in his autobiography titled ``There is No Myth,'' first published in 1995.
American bombs claimed the lives of Lee's two siblings during the Korean War. His family, then living in the small port city of Pohang, was so poor they ate spent grains from a liquor distillery for breakfast and dinner, reddening his face and making him reek of alcohol at school _ and leading his teachers to suspect he was a drunken delinquent.
Lee had to peddle cheap snacks and ice cream on the streets in his teens.
``Poverty that had stuck fast to our family like an oyster shell wouldn't go away until I was over 20,'' Lee wrote. ``It was unimaginable to take lunch to school. Nobody can fathom the pain (of poverty) unless they have had the experience of pumping water into their stomachs during lunchtime.''
At first his parents balked at the idea of Lee attending high school because of the cost of tuition, but agreed after he promised to study on a scholarship and remain at the top of his class _ which he achieved all three years.
Life got no better after his family moved to Seoul in late 1959. His parents still sold vegetables on the streets while Lee, who worked as a day laborer on construction sites, decided what to do with his life.
``My dream at the time was to become a salaryman,'' he said on his campaign Web site.
Lee won admission to the elite Korea University and paid his tuition with the proceeds from a street cleaning job. It was at college that Lee first became involved in politics. He was elected to run the university's student council and joined anti-government demonstrations _ for which he received a suspended prison term in 1964.
That sentence almost prevented Lee from taking an entry-level position at the Hyundai Group conglomerate he would later rule. Worried about angering South Korea's then-authoritarian government, the company initially refused to hire Lee. He wrote an impassioned letter to the president's office begging the government not to ruin his future, and the letter so moved a presidential secretary that Hyundai was given permission to give Lee a job.
Lee's drive to get things done earned him the nickname ``Bulldozer'' during his 30 years with Hyundai Group _ of which he was eventually made CEO _ and tales of his breakthroughs in difficult situations dot his career. In one instance he completely took apart a bulldozer to study its mechanism and figure out why it kept breaking down.
Lee's attitude so impressed Chung Ju-yung, Hyundai's founder who built the conglomerate from nothing, that Lee was catapulted through the company hierarchy and was CEO of Hyundai's construction arm after just 10 years.
Lee began his political career in 1992 as a national legislator, but was forced to step down in 1998 for violating campaign spending limits.
He then left for the United States to become a guest researcher at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and he started several businesses with Korean-American fund manager Kim Kyung-jun. He withdrew from those ventures after Kim was accused of forging management reports, but the former partnership continues to plague Lee. Parliament passed a bill Monday to investigate allegations that Lee was involved in stock price manipulation with Kim.
In 2002, Lee was elected Seoul's mayor, under whose remit he oversaw two impressive projects: linking the capital's bus and subway systems and opening up a long-paved-over stream to create a new landmark.
Lee says there is no secret to his success other than working hard.
``We can never make history under a leader who says 'We can't do it,' 'It's difficult' or 'It's impossible,''' he told supporters at the restored stream after his victory Wednesday night.
``If we pool our strength believing 'We can do it' and 'It's possible,' we can make it beautiful like this whatever hardships there are,'' he said.
Wed December 19, 2007 19:22 EST
JAE-SOON CHANG
Associated Press Writer
SEOUL, South Korea
President-elect Lee Myung-bak said Thursday in Seoul that he would not shy from criticizing North Korea's authoritarian regime, the day after his landslide win ended a decade of liberal rule that has fostered unprecedented reconciliation on the divided peninsula.
(AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)
s a child, Lee Myung-bak once survived by eating grain residue from a brewery, leaving him with nothing but water to fill his empty stomach at school lunch breaks.
