Lee Myung-bak (pronounced /ˌliː ˌmjʊŋˈbæk/; Korean pronunciation: ; born 19 December 1941 in Osaka, Japan) is a Korean politician and is the President of South Korea. Prior to his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, and the mayor of Seoul.

Lee was born on December 19, 1941 in Osaka, Japan. On his birth certificate, Lee's Japanese name was Akihiro Tsukiyama (月山 明博, Tsukiyama Akihiro?, つきやま あきひろ). His father, Lee Cheung-woo (이충우), was employed as a farm hand on a cattle ranch in Japan. His mother, Chae Tae-won (채태원) was a housewife . Lee has three brothers and three sisters and is the fifth child of seven children. After the end of World War II in 1945, his family returned to his father's hometown Pohang, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea.

Lee attended night school at Dongji Commercial High School in Pohang on a full scholarship. A year after graduation, Lee gained admission to Korea University. In 1964, during his third year in college, Lee was elected president of the student council. That year, Lee participated in student demonstrations against President Park Chung-hee's Seoul-Tokyo Talks taking issue with Japanese restitution for the colonization of the Korean peninsula. He was charged with plotting insurrection and was sentenced to five years probation and three years of imprisonment by the Supreme Court of Korea. He served a little under three months of his term at the Seodaemun prison (서대문 형무소) in Seoul.