Lee Hong-Koo (born May 9, 1934; Hangul: 이홍구; Hanja: 李洪九) is a former Korean academic, politician, and think tank leader who served as a former Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea, former South Korean Ambassador to the United Kingdom and United States, and founding Chairman of the East Asia Institute in Seoul.
Early life and education
Lee Hong-Koo's family name ("bon-gwan") originates with the Jeonju Lee clan (or Jeonju Yi clan), the family of the ruling dynasty of Korea from 1392 to 1910. He is the 15th generation descendant of Yi Jeon, Prince Yeongsan who is the son of King Seongjong of Joseon. He was born in what was then the (village-designated) Yeoyu-ri, Koyang District, Gyeonggi Province (today a part of Yeouido Island, Seoul), in Japanese Korea. Raised in Japanese Gyeongseong (Seoul), in 1953, he graduated from the elite Gyeonggi High School. The same year, he entered Seoul National University to study law but dropped out the following year.
Academic career
In the United States
In 1955, Lee entered Emory University in the United States majoring in political science, and graduated in 1959. Later he earned MA (1961) and PhD (1968) degrees in political science from Yale University. He was an adjunct professor at Emory University from 1964 until 1968. In 1973–1974, he returned again to the United States, first as a fellow at Woodrow Wilson International Center (think tank) in 1973, and then at Harvard Law School in 1974.
Lee was awarded an honorary doctorate by Emory University in 1978.
In Seoul
In 1968 or 1969, Lee returned to Korea to serve as professor of political science at Korea's top university, Seoul National University through 1973, and again served in this capacity after his return from Harvard circa 1974. He served as professor at SNU until his appointment as a government minister in 1988.
Political career
Following 33 years in academia (around half in the U.S. and half in Seoul), Lee Hong-Koo entered the world of politics and government when in 1988, he was appointed unification minister by newly elected President Roh Tae-Woo.
In 1991, Lee was appointed South Korean Ambassador to the United Kingdom, also by Roh, and from 1994-95 Lee served as the 28th Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea under President Kim Young-Sam (though as Korea is a strong presidential system, the position of Prime Minister is subordinate to the presidency). At this time, Lee was not a member of any party.
Entrance into the New Korea Party
In 1996, upon the advice of (then-)President Kim Young-Sam, Lee Hong-Koo formally entered the New Korea Party to run as a candidate for that party in the then-upcoming National Assembly elections.
The New Korea Party was a rebranded version of the coalition of conservative and moderate forces that had come together in 1990 with the mergers of Kim Young-Sam's centrist party (core support area: Pusan and South Kyongsang), Kim Jong-Pil's (core support area: Chungcheong), and Roh Tae-Woo’s conservative party (core support area: Taegu and North Kyongsang), the latter of which was the clearest successor to the military-oriented regimes of the 1960s to 1980s. The party’s rebranding as ‘New Korea’ came following the departure of Kim Jong-Pil's party from this coalition in 1995. (The New Korea Party was renamed the Grand National Party in 1998 and essentially endured through the mid 2010s, with Kim Jong-Pil and his followers also returning by 2006, until the political crisis of 2016 under Park Geun-Hye caused severe divisions that broke apart the successor Saenuri party.)
Lee Hong-Koo was elected a member of the National Assembly in the April 1996 general election, as the second name on the national party list for the New Korea Party. As Korea then had 47 seats to distribute on a proportional basis at the time, the high slot that the party gave Lee guaranteed that he would enter the National Assembly. The New Korea Party itself won 139 of 299 seats in the election, far above its rivals' individual totals of 79 seats (Kim Dae-Jung's party) and 50 seats (Kim Jong-Pil's right-wing breakaway party).
Rapid political rise, presidential speculation
Lee rose quickly in 1996, becoming a member of the Executive Committee of the New Korea party, and then the leader of the party itself. Lee was, at this time, widely considered a possible successor to President Kim Young-Sam (whose term of office was February 1993 to February 1998).
In 1995 and early 1996, Lee served as chairman of the World Cup Bidding Committee, which successfully lobbied for South Korea to co-host the World Cup in 2002 (FIFA selected Korea/Japan in May 1996).