pyongyang Who Is Lee Jae-joung?
By Yoon Wohn-sup
Staff Reporter
Lee Jae-joung was born in Jincheon, North Chungcheong Province in 1944, and graduated from Kyunggi High School in Seoul and Korea University.
Lee started mandatory military service in 1969 after graduating university but he was discharged due to ill health. He attended a seminary of the Anglican Church 1969 to 1971, and was ordained a priest in 1972.
Joining the National Council of Churches (NCC) in 1972, he became a democratic activist and established relations with civic leaders and opposition politicians. He married Park Young-hee in 1973.
Becoming a professor at SungKongHoe University in Seoul in 1988, he served as president of the university from 1994 to 1997.
In 1999, Lee entered the political world by assuming the head of a political association led by Kim Geun-tae, former chairman of the ruling Uri Party. He became a lawmaker of the Millennium Democratic Party in 2000.
During the party primary he supported then presidential candidate Roh Moo-hyun and contributed to Roh's win at the election in 2002.
In 2003 Lee was convicted of delivering a campaign fund of one billion won from the Hanwha group to the Roh camp. He didn't run for the general election in 2004, distancing himself from politics, instead worked as a priest.
He made a comeback by becoming the head of the National Unification Advisory Council in October 2004 and was made the unification minister in December 2006.