Former Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo passed away on the 14th after battling a recurrence of blood cancer. 71 years old.
Former Prime Minister Lee had been battling multiple myelopathy, a type of blood cancer, in 2012. After that, he underwent a bone marrow transplant, recovered and resumed his activities. Then, the disease recurred and recently got worse and he was hospitalized.
Former Prime Minister Lee, who was born in Cheongyang-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, was born in 1950 and passed the administrative examination in 1974 and started public office at the Economic Planning Board (predecessor to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance). After that, he served as the youngest (31-year-old) police chief and the Chungnam and Buk Regional Police Agency chiefs. He joined the Democratic Party of Korea in 1995 and entered politics and served as a member of the National Assembly for three terms (15th, 16th, and 19th). In the 15th and 16th generations, he served as the secretary general of the party representative of the New Korea Party, spokesman for the People’s Republic of Korea, general secretary, and secretary-general.
In 2006, he was elected governor of Chungcheongnam-do as a member of the Grand National Party, but before the expiration of his term, he resigned as governor in opposition to the Lee Myung-bak administration’s proposal to amend Sejong City. Since then, he has been mentioned as the leader of the Saenuri Party and as the prime minister in February 2015 during the Park Geun-hye administration.
However, after being involved in the ‘Sung Wan Jong List’, he was disgraced after 63 days. In December 2017, he was acquitted by the Supreme Court, and in January of last year, ahead of the 21st general election, he announced that he would not run and retire from politics.
A funeral home for former Prime Minister Lee is being prepared at the funeral home of St. Mary’s Hospital in Seoul, and the burial site is known as Seonyeong, Bibong-myeon, in his hometown, Cheongyang, Chungcheongnam-do.
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