His Excellency The Right Honourable
Lee Hoi-chang
이회창
24th Prime Minister of South Korea
In office
17 December 1993 – 21 April 1994
PresidentKim Young-sam
Preceded byHwang In-sung
Succeeded byLee Yung-dug
Member of the National Assembly
In office
30 May 2008 – 29 May 2012
Preceded byHong Moon-pyo
Succeeded byHong Moon-pyo
ConstituencyHongseong–Yesan
In office
30 May 2000 – 10 December 2002
ConstituencyProportional representation
In office
4 June 1999 – 29 May 2000
Preceded byHong Jun-pyo
Succeeded byMaeng Hyung-gyu
ConstituencySeoul Songpa A
Leader of the Liberty Forward Party
In office
1 February 2008 – 9 May 2011
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byByun Woong-jeon
President of the Grand National Party
In office
30 August 1998 – 1 April 2002
Preceded byCho Soon
Succeeded byPark Kwan-yong (acting)
President of the New Korea Party
In office
30 September 1997 – 21 November 1997
Preceded byKim Young-sam
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Personal details
Born (1935-06-02) 2 June 1935
Sohung County, Hwanghae, Korea (now North Korea)
Political partyIndependent
Other political
affiliations		New Korea (1996–1997)
Grand National (1997–2007)
Independent (2007–2008)
Liberty Forward (2008–2012)
Saenuri (2012–2017)
SpouseHan In-ok[1]
Children2 sons[2]
Alma materSeoul National University
ReligionRoman Catholic[3]
Korean name
Hangul
Hanja
Revised RomanizationI Hoe-chang
McCune–ReischauerYi Hoech'ang
Art name
Hangul
Hanja
Revised RomanizationGyeongsa
McCune–ReischauerKyŏngsa

Lee Hoi-chang (Korean pronunciation: [i.hø.tɕʰaŋ]; born June 2, 1935) is a South Korean politician and lawyer who served as the 26th Prime Minister of South Korea from 1993 to 1994. He was a presidential candidate in the 15th, 16th and 17th presidential elections of South Korea. Prior to his presidential campaigns, Lee served as Supreme Court Justice of the Supreme Court of Korea.[4]

Early life and education

Lee was born to an elite family in Seoheung, Hwanghae (part of what is now North Korea), but grew up in the South after his father, Lee Hong-gyu, a public prosecutor, was appointed to a new post.[5] Lee studied law at Seoul National University. Lee served as a judge from 1960 to 1980, when he became the country's youngest-ever Supreme Court Justice at the age of 46.[5]

Political career

In 1988, Lee was appointed Chairman of the National Election Commission. He was chosen to head the Board of Audit and Inspection under President Kim Young-sam in 1993. Lee's anti-corruption campaigns in that office gained him the nickname "Bamboo," a Korean term for an upright person of principle.[5] Later in the same year, he was appointed prime minister, but resigned in 1994. His departure was attributed to a frustration with the exclusion of the office of the prime minister from policymaking, in particular concerning North Korea.[4]

In 1996, Lee led the parliamentary campaign of the then-ruling New Korea Party (NKP), which merged with the United Democratic Party to become the Grand National Party (GNP) in 1997.[6] Lee was elected as his party's presidential candidate for the presidential election scheduled for that same year. Lee was initially considered the frontrunner in the race, although his performance in public polling took a hit amid revelations in September that two of his sons had been excused from mandatory military service for reporting for duty underweight, having each lost 22 pounds since their initial physical examinations.[7] Lee ultimately lost to Kim Dae-Jung in the midst of the Asian economic crisis.

Lee again campaigned to win the presidency in 2002, running against Roh Moo-hyun of the incumbent Millennium Democratic Party. Although corruption scandals marred the incumbent government, Lee's campaign suffered from the wave of Anti-American sentiment in Korea generated by the Yangju highway incident. Public opinion of Lee, who was widely seen as being both pro-U.S. and the preferred candidate of the George W. Bush Administration in Washington, D.C., suffered. After losing to Roh by 2% in the December 2002 elections, Lee subsequently announced his retirement from politics.[5][8]

On November 7, 2007, Lee officially announced his third campaign for the South Korean presidency as an unaligned candidate after quitting the GNP. Launching his campaign late in the race, some two months prior to the election, Lee joined GNP candidate Lee Myung-bak, UNDP contender Chung Dong-young, and Moon Kook-hyun. Running to the right of his opponents, Lee criticized foreign aid to North Korea, arguing that such programs were fiscally burdensome and inappropriate while North Korea continued to pursue the development of nuclear weapons.[9][10] His presidential bid posed a concern to the conservatives who were eager to regain the presidency after a decade of leftist rule, as it was feared Lee's candidacy would divide the conservative vote; however, Lee Myung-Bak won the December elections with 48.7% of the vote, while Lee Hoi-chang came in third, with approximately 15%.[11][12][13] After his 2007 election bid, Lee founded the Liberty Forward Party.

Political positions

Lee has been described as a staunch conservative in the context of South Korean politics.[14] His positions include anti-communism, support for free market capitalism, and a hard-line stance against North Korea.[14] Lee repeatedly criticized Kim Dae-jung's "Sunshine Policy" of engagement and détente with North Korea, and argued for the cessation of foreign aid until the North should dismantle its nuclear weapon program. Lee has called for a crackdown on illegal strikes, and for the appointment of more women to government offices.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Opposition gains control in S. Korea". CNN. 8 August 2002. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  2. ↑ "Asiaweek.com Power 50". Asiaweek. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  3. ↑ KBS WORLD radio
  4. 1 2 Holley, David (22 July 1997). "S. Korea's 'Mr. Clean' Is Nominee for President". LA Times. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Profile: Lee Hoi-Chang". BBC News. 3 December 2002. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  6. ↑ "Liberty Korea Party | History, Mergers, & Name Changes | Britannica".
  7. ↑ Nicholas D., Kristof (7 September 1997). "Sons' Military Weigh-In Pulls Korean Candidate From Lead". New York Times. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  8. ↑ Cossa, Ralph A. (December 2012). "U.S.-Korea Relations: Trials, Tribulations, Threats, Tirades" (PDF). Comparative Connections—An E-Journal on East Asian Bilateral Relations. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  9. ↑ Brooke, James (12 September 2001). "Observation Post Dora Journal; This Train Is Bound for Nowhere, for the Moment". New York Times. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  10. ↑ Kang, David C. (March 2008). Flake, Gordon L.; Park, Ryo-byug (eds.). Understanding New Political Realities in Seoul: Working toward a Common Approach to Strengthen U.S.-Korean Relations (PDF). pp. 27–42. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  11. ↑ Angus Reid page on South Korea Archived March 13, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ↑ "Lee wins South Korea's election". BBC News. 19 December 2007.
  13. ↑ "Conservative landslide marks new era in South Korea". The Heritage Foundation. 20 December 2007. Archived from the original on 5 February 2009.
  14. 1 2 Foster-Carter, Aidan (1 August 2014). "What's Left in South Korea?". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
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