There are many kinds of leaders in our society. Among them, we could say that the representative leaders are politicians. They are at the helm of the state and lead the local people who are their supporters. Chung-Ang Herald (CAH) met with Jae-oh, Lee who is the Floor Leader of The Grand National Party for an interview.

CAH: Can you talk to us about your school days?
--I entered Chung-Ang University on 1964. When I was university student, unlike the present situation in Korea we did not care about what kind of job we would get after graduating school. The diversity of certificates for getting a job was not matter of concern for me at the time. I organized the ‘Farm & Fishing Village Association Club.

We discussed about the problems in Farm & Fishing Villages and then, I always lead student movements with my friends to express our thoughts. These student movements have many differences compared to the present day’s campaign, which are more ideological. Our movements only came from pure reason. 


The most memorable event was the movement against Korean-Japanese Ministerial Conference about territorial limits in 1964. When we heard the result of this conference, we did not agree and did not understand what our politicians did? Our organization started the agitation against this terrible result, this was the reason that got me expelled from school.

When I came back to the school on 1993, my junior classmates had become  professors in Chung-Ang University. It was a very funny situation. I graduate from school in 1996. Some people said, “You are a man who has a long school life, 32 years!!!” I could proudly say “I had Dreams and Ideals during my school days”

CAH: Do you have any political creed?
--Yes, I have one doctrine. It is that each person’s happy life comes from National efforts ratter than private ability. Each person lives for a happy life. I think, that it is possible that social and national infra was established rather than private ability. The principles of free markets, Democracy belong to these infra.

The efforts to make a more developed social system are for  Politics, which is the only tool for each ones happy life. If politics are perfect, our life will have an  improvement in quality. 

CAH: When was the hardest time in your life? 
--Some people say “To know about Jae-oh, Lee, we never forget his worst time.” I do not want to remember that time. My worst times were when I was in prison because of the demonstration. I went to prison 5 times, for 10 years. I could get many things done during that time. So I am not ashamed of this period because I did the best I could every time.

CAH: What do want to say to your juniors, CAU students?
--I always want to say this saying: ‘No pain, No gain(不努無榮)’
Whatever you wanted to do, do it with such property, honor and power, devoting yourself entirely in the spirit of the laws effort. We cannot have honor without these efforts.


And then, you must read a lot of books, it is important during school days. We cannot learn everything through  experience, especially the difficult ones; In this case, Books are the solution, they give us  indirect experience. Your brain is a sandglass, one half consists of your real experiences and the other half is indirect experiences from books, for this reason, books are strongest weapons that you may find in life.

＃. Biography
Name: Jae-oh, Lee
Birthday: January 11th, 1945
Ancestral home: Jae-ryung
Present address: Gusan-dong, Eunpyeung-Gu, Seoul
E-mail address: leejo@assembly.go.kr