Lee Hae-chan

Lee Hae-chan
이해찬
File:Lee Haechan.JPG
Member of the National Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 30 May 2012
Succeeded by	New constituency
Constituency	Sejong
In office 30 May 1996 – 29 May 2008
Preceded by	Lee Hae-chan
Succeeded by	Kim Hee-chull
Constituency	Seoul Gwanak B
In office 30 May 1988 – 30 June 1995
Preceded by	Yim Churl-soon, Kim Soo-han
Succeeded by	Lee Hae-chan
Constituency	Seoul Gwanak B
36th Prime Minister of South Korea
In office 30 June 2004 – 15 March 2006
President	Roh Moo-hyun
Preceded by	Goh Kun
Succeeded by	Han Myeong-sook
Minister of Education
In office 3 March 1998 – 24 May 1999
President	Kim Dae-jung
Preceded by	Lee Myung-hyun
Succeeded by	Kim Duk-choong
Personal details
Born	(1952-07-10) July 10, 1952 Cheongyang, South Chungcheong, South Korea
Political party	PPD → NDAP → DP → NCNP → MDP → DP → Uri → UNDP → DUP → DP → NPAD → Minjoo Party of Korea (until March 2016, September 2016 - present) Independent (March - September 2016)

Korean name
Hangul	이해찬
Hanja	李海瓚
Revised Romanization	I Haechan
McCune–Reischauer	I Haech'an

Lee Hae-chan (born July 10, 1952) is a former Prime Minister of South Korea. He was nominated by president Roh Moo-hyun on June 8, 2004, confirmed by the National Assembly on June 29, and took office on June 30. He is a member of the liberal Uri Party, and was elected five times for the National Assembly. On March 14, 2006, he resigned amidst the so-called golf game scandal.

He also served as the minister of education under former president Kim Dae-jung from 1998 to 1999, presiding over controversial education reforms including revamping the college entrance process and lowering the retirement age of teachers. The first reform in particular, which at the time was summed up in the slogan that being good at one thing was enough to get into college, was criticised for allegedly lowering dramatically the scholastic competence of the so-called "Lee Hae-chan generation" of then-high school students.

His nomination as prime minister met some resistance due to his record as minister of education, which many consider a failure. Since taking office, however, Lee has proved an able prime minister, being described by some as the most powerful prime minister South Korea has seen.

On March 1, 2006, the Korean Railroad Workers Union and Seoul Subway Union entered a strike together. The strike of railroad and subway at the same time proved to be a fatal blow at the nation's economic activity, especially Seoul area, where traffic heavily depend on subway, which is controlled by these two unions. Prime Minister Lee was supposed to command the situation and mediate the strike; however, he was playing golf at Busan area with local businessmen, and this caused massive distaste among Korean people against Lee for not taking care of the government and people.

See also

• Politics of South Korea
• List of Koreans
• List of Korea-related topics