Quirky stories about presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak

LMB’s profile

- 1941. 12. 19 born in Osaka, Japan
- 1965 enter Hyundai Construction
- 1970. 12. 19 married Kim Yoon-ok
- 1977-88 President of Hyundai Construction
- 1978 CEO of Incheon Steel (later Incheon steel merged into Hyundai Steel Co.)
- 1988-92 CEO of Hyundai Construction
- 1992-95 Representative in the 14th national assembly
- 1996-1998 Representative in the 15th national assembly
- 2002-2006 Seoul City mayor

This below information is from Chsoun Ilbo interview with LMB

Nickname : Comdozer (Computer + Bulldozer)
Alcohol : One bottle of beer
Family : wife, one son, three daughters
person whom he respects: Ahn Chang-ho (independent fighter against the Japanese colonial rule), Gandhi
personal motto : always do my best
favorite foods: 순두부, 비빔밥, spaghetti
how to get rid of stress : exercising, chatting with friends on the phone
most embarrassing moment : when I was selling popping rice in front of girl’s high school (I was a high school student at that time)
my fashion style : wear whatever my wife tells me to wear for the sake of peace at home
my childhood dream : teacher, fire fighter
most regrettable thing in my life : couldn’t buy my mother a single new clothes while she was alive
three most amazing incidents in my life : having such a good mother, my middle school teacher’s encouraging me to advance to high school, meeting Chung Joo-young


Two TV dramas depicting LMB’s life

- In 1989, KBS ‘Time of Ambition’
- In July 2004-March 2005, MBC ‘Time of Heroes’: The drama was about Korea’s industrialization process in the 1970s-80s and supposed to run until June 2005, but no obvious reason, it abruptly ended in February. Rumor has it that MBC and involved people were under huge political pressure not to beautify Park Jung-hee and LMB.

The writer of the drama said in an interview “before the drama was aired, I had got a few phone calls from a former high-ranking ruling party lawmaker, warning me that I would be in big trouble unless I was very careful in depicting the rising political force.”

His childhood

He was born Dec 19, 1941 in Osaka. When she was pregnant with him, his mother dreamed about a full moon coming to her and she hugged it with her skirt. He was the third son and fifth child, with three brothers and three sisters. (his elder sister and youngest brother died during the Korean war from injures inflicted when a US combat plane dropped off bombs in his village to kill North Korean soldiers believed to have sneaked into the village.)

When his family lived in Japan, life hadn’t been that hard, but his family lost all of their family fortune when the ship in which his family boarded for Korea went down. Severe poverty continued more than 20 years until LMB turned 20. When his brother Lee Sang-duk entered Seoul National University, he had to earn money as well to support his brother. His parents didn’t allow LMB to go to high school but he managed to go to a night-time high school which gave him scholarship.

Episode 1

Chung Joo-young asked LMB in the company interview,
Chung : “what do you thing construction is?”
LMB : “It is creation.”
Chung : “Why is that?”
LMB: “It is because it creates something out of nothing.”
Chung : “You are at least a good speaker.”

Episode 2

In the welcoming party for new employees, LMB and Chung Joo-young were the last two persons to survive when all others went dead drunk. Chung liked LMB’s pluckiness and confidence.

Episode 3

When he was promoted to president of Hyundai Construction, Chung said to him “you know how to deal with people, and I hope you take charge not for me but for the company.” Chung was said to have deeper trust in Lee than in his sons.

Episode 4

When Hyundai was constructing the Seoul-Pusan highway, he (then he was the field supervisor) complained of dust and particulates coming from the aggregates plant next to the construction site. The company promised him to take measures to stop particulates from disrupting highway construction site. But it didn’t deliver what it promised, counting on the connection to Cheong Wa Dae. LMB became angry and drove a bulldozer to dig up the earth on the main road to the plant. Even Cheong Wa Dae pressed LMB to stop making a fuss but he insisted Cheong Wa Dae had nothing to do with the issue. The aggregates plant finally gave in to his demand to build a protection facility against dust. This incident shows why his nickname is bulldozer.

Episode 5

Chung Joo-young asked LMB to join his newly-formed party but Lee declined the offer by saying “I don’t want to do politics and have no reason to jump into the politics.” But a few months later he ran for the National Assembly and succeeded to become a representative of Kim Young-sam’s Democracy and Freedom Party, which was a rival party of Chung’s Unification People’s Party. “I came to think I have to do something after I watched what changes could be brought to the world by just one person called Gorbachev,” he later said of the reason to enter the politics.

Episode 6

When serving as Seoul mayor, he was lambasted because of his lecture to young Christians in which he said he would dedicate Seoul City to God. In “the letter to God” he read out loud during the lecture was there his signature of “Seoul City Mayor and presbyter Lee Myung Bak,” and on the cover of the letter printed the Seoul City official emblem.

Episode 7

In 2002, he brought his son and son-in-law to the official event to give Guus Hiddink, then national soccer team coach, honorary citizenship. LMB made them take picture with Mr. Hiddink. Photo session was supposed to take place after Q & A session by reporters, but he abruptly changed the schedule to have the photo session happen first. The first one who could take pictures with the then-hero was Lee’s family members.

Episode 8 (verbal mistakes)

In 2003, “the reason for the miserable education system is because people in charge of education policies all come from rural areas.”

In 2005, “I really want to stop the construction of administration complex towns, even by mobilizing military, if necessary.”

Criminal records
(on the National Election Commission, only his arrest related to student movement instigation is made public)

- He instigated student movements against Park Jung-hee dictatorship and unfair Korea-Japan relations normalization summit in 1964, and he surrendered himself to the police after one month of run-away. He was sentenced two years in prison and three years in stay of execution. During the court trial, he said “student movements should be about raising problems based on pure passion, and when we try to solve the problem, it will cause another problem.” “You shouldn’t choose student activism as your profession.”

- In 1996 he was ousted from the National Assembly for violating election law by spending much more during election campaign than permitted by law. He was fined W4m.