Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 28. Chapters: President of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, Kim Dae-jung, Roh Tae-woo, Lee Myung-bak, Roh Moo-hyun, Chun Doo-hwan, Park Chung-hee, List of Presidents of South Korea, Kim Young-sam, Yun Bo-seon, Heo Jeong, Choi Kyu-hah, Goh Kun, List of Presidents of South Korea by time in office. Excerpt: Lee Myung-bak (pronounced , Korean: , born 19 December 1941) is a South Korean politician and the President of South Korea. Prior to his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction and the mayor of Seoul. He is married to Kim Yoon-ok and has three daughters and one son. His older brother is Lee Sang-deuk, a South Korean politician. He attends the Somang Presbyterian Church. He received a honorary degree from Paris Diderot University on May 13, 2011. 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 attended night school at Dongji Commercial High School in Pohang, at the time he received a scholarship. A year after graduation, Lee gained admission to Korea University. In 1964, during his third year in college, Lee was elected president of the student council. That year, Lee participated in