Lee Myung-Bak
Lee Myung-Bak was born on Friday, December 19, 1941 in Osaka and he is a famous head of state from South Korea.
Lee altered the South Korean government's approach to North Korea, preferring a more hardline strategy in the wake of increased provocations from the North, but is also supportive of regional dialogue with Russia, China, and Japan. Under Lee, South Korea weathered the Global Financial Crisis and has emerged as a major player on the international scene through hosting the 2010 G-20 Seoul summit.
Lee Myung-bak was born on December 19, 1941 in Osaka, Japan. The Lee family had emigrated to Japan during the Japanese colonization of Korea. His father, Lee Chung-u, was employed as a farm hand on a cattle ranch in Japan, and his mother, Chae Taewon was a housewife. Lee is the fifth of seven children, with three brothers and three sisters. After the end of World War II in 1945, his family returned to his father's hometown of Pohang, in Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea. Lee's sister, Lee Ki-sun, made it known that they smuggled themselves into the country in order to avoid the property they acquired in Japan being confiscated by the officials. However, because the ship they took was wrecked off the coast of Tsushima island they lost all their belongings after all and the family barely survived.
Lee became a company director at the age of 29 - just five years after he joined the company - and CEO at age 35, becoming Korea's youngest CEO ever. In 1988, he was named the chairman of Hyundai Construction at the age of 47.
In 1992 Lee made the transition from business to politics. He joined the Democratic Liberal Party instead of the Unification National Party, founded by Chung Ju-yung. He was elected as a member of the 14th Korean National Assembly (for Proportional representation). Upon being elected, he stated that he ran because "after watching Mikhail Gorbachev change the world climate I wanted to see if there was anything I could do." In 1995, he ran for the City of Seoul's mayoral election, but during the primary of the Democratic Liberal Party, former prime minister Chung Won-sik was selected as the candidate.
Former president, Kim Young-sam had expressed negative outlooks on Lee Myung-bak's role as the president and his influence between South Korea and Japan according to a Wikileaks file.