Lee Kwang-jae (politician)

Despite being barred from running for any elections for 10 years, Lee was pardoned by the President Moon Jae-in on 30 December 2019, and thus paved a way for him to make a comeback.

Lee Kwang-jae was born in Cheonbyeon-ri, Pyeongchang-eup, Pyeongchang, Gangwon in 1965, as the eldest (and the only one) son and the 2nd child in a family of 7 children.

[1][3] His aunt, Lee Kang-choon, was split with his father during the Korean War, and currently resides in Pyongyang area, North Korea.

[1][5] Lee attended Wonju High School in 1980, but shortly after, a massive protest came in Gwangju after the coup d'état of Chun Doo-hwan.

[1][3] Instead, he took a trip with his friends before applying to Yonsei University in 1983, where he studied chemical engineering and obtained a bachelor's degree in law.

[5] After Roh was elected the President in 2002, Lee was appointed the Chief of the Office of the State of Affairs, but resigned after eight months following the criticisms for being "too influential".

[12] Under the Roh government, Lee was a person putting efforts to hold the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, where he was born.

The Grand National Party (GNP) presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak was elected the new president in 2007 amid the low popularity of the Roh government.

[2][24][28] At the first trial, he was sentenced 8 months in prison, 2 years probation, and 148,140,000 won (£94,113) in compensation, which was equivalent to void the election.

[2][28] On 11 June 2010, few weeks before the inauguration, the Seoul High Court sentenced him to 6 months in prison, 1 year probation and 114,170,000 won (£72,532) in compensation,[29] and therefore he took an oath while being suspended from conducting duties.

[1] Prior to the Independence Movement Day 2019, there was an attempt to pardon him, but never happened as politicians were excluded by the Ministry of Justice.

[39] On 30 December 2019, Lee was given a special amnesty by the President Moon Jae-in, along with Kwak No-hyun and Han Sang-kyun.

[43] He contested against the United Future Party (UFP) candidate Park Jung-ha, the former Spokesperson of the Office of the President and the former Deputy Governor of Jeju.

[48][49][50][51] He indicated that he was inspired by Sejong the Great, who conducted an opinion polling to collect data from about 170 thousands people in Gyeongsang and Jeolla areas to gradually introduce a tax policy.

[48][49][51] On 27 May, Lee made an official announcement to run for the presidential election at KBIZ-Korea Federation of SMEs headquarter in Yeouido.

[55][56][57] During an interview with The Dong-a Ilbo in 2003, Lee explained that his forefinger was cut while using a press machine at a factory in Bupyeong.

[56][58] The issue came to a controversy when he published his autobiography titled Dream of a Spring Water prior to the 2004 election, where he described that he purposely cut his finger to write in blood on a Taegukgi after he saw self-immolation of students in 1986.

[57] Oh Seung-jae, the Deputy Spokesperson of the GNP, suggested a possibility the incident was "on purpose to default national service", citing Lee's autobiography.

[60] Kim Hyong-o, a GNP MP, compared Lee to An Jung-geun, saying, "No one doubt a patriotism for An's short finger.

"[66] The Democratic Party faced crushing defeats at the by-elections, where it lost Seoul and Busan mayorship to the PPP.