By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
The official campaign poster of Grand National Party (GNP) presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak reads: ``I wish you make all the success in the world.''
The man in a black formal suit in the poster, Lee, is widely viewed as the personification of the Korean dream, having led an extraordinary career from child worker to high-flying business executive.
While at Hyundai Engineering and Construction in 1965, he achieved legendary status through his impressive rise from an entry-level employee to a business leader over 27 years.
The late business tycoon Chung Ju-yung was to a large extent responsible for getting Lee's career on track.
Chung, founder of Hyundai Group, handpicked Lee at a job interview in 1965.
Lee joined the National Assembly in 1992 as a lawmaker with the then ruling New Korea Party under the leadership of former President Kim Young-sam.
He recalled in his book published in 2002 that he decided to accept the offer from the former president because he wanted to transplant his highly successful career in the private sector into the political arena.
However, his plan did not go the way he intended.
Lee's 15-year political career was as eventful as his poverty-stricken childhood years.
``A lot of inefficient practices were in full swing in politics,'' he recalled, adding that the culture of debate had been lost.
Political reality then was all about three factors _ money, successful networking with influential political leaders, and currying favor with them. Those lacking these qualities seem to have little chance to survive, he said.
Rep. Lee was reelected in Jongro, Seoul, in the 1996 National Assembly elections.
Two years later, however, one of his former aides turned whistle-blower after witnessing Election Law violations in his campaigning.
Lee quit his Assembly position in 1998.
He returned to politics as mayor of Seoul through the 2002 local elections.
During the campaign season, he pledged to restore the urban slum of Cheonggyecheon into a beautiful urban park.
Lee pushed through the demanding plan during the first two years of his term and finally presented a gorgeous waterway to residents of the capital city.
With the urban beautification project, his name went global when Time Magazine covered his story in 2005.
This year, Lee was named as one of the Heroes of the Environment by the magazine alongside other global figures.
His result-driven and growth-oriented mentality has caused him to be a target of his political opponents.
They call him a pro-business candidate who has little compassion for working-class families.
Born in Osaka, Japan, Lee turns 66 on the Dec. 19 election day.
He was raised in Pohang City, North Gyeongsang Province, and used to sell a variety of street foods with his late mother when he was a child.
He has four adult children _ three daughters and one son _ with his wife Kim Yoon-ok.