Pro-business Lee sworn in as new leader of S Korea

SOUTH KOREA: LEE MYUNG-BAK, the former building industry boss known as "Bulldozer", who has committed to radical change and economic revival in South Korea, was sworn in as the country's new president yesterday.

"I hereby declare the year 2008 as the starting year for the advancement of the Republic of Korea . . . I will reignite the engine of growth that once made the whole world marvel," Mr Lee told an audience of about 60,000 who gathered for his inauguration.

Among the guests were Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda and US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

Mr Lee has made no secret of the fact he is planning a chief executive-style presidency. He is a free-market champion and said during the campaign that he would revive the economy through deregulation and economic reform.

He is a former senior executive of the construction division of Hyundai, one of the big corporations, or chaebols, which many consider the real powerbrokers in the world's 13th-largest economy.

He was born in 1941 in Osaka, Japan, where his parents were working during the Japanese occupation of Korea. He rose from dire poverty and grew up in a strictly Christian family, collecting rubbish to put himself through college. At 36, he became chief executive of Hyundai Construction.

One of his first actions after being sworn in was to herald better relations with Japan, having agreed with Mr Fukuda to hold regular summits and work out ways to tear down trade barriers.

He also called for warmer relations with the US, which has close to 30,000 troops in the South, but with whom relations have been slightly more tense in recent years.

On the thorniest diplomatic challenge faced by any South Korean leader - how to deal with North Korea - he said he wanted closer relations with Pyongyang, but only if it comes good on promises to end its nuclear weapons programme.

Mr Lee's success on environmental issues was a big factor in his rise to the presidency. He won a landslide victory in December, ending 10 years of rule by the liberals. He has set a target of an average 7 per cent annual economic growth over the next decade and has pledged to double per-capita income.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times