Lee Hae-chan

On 1 March 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.

He was the former Prime Minister of South Korea. He was nominated by president Roh Moo-hyun on 8 June 2004, confirmed by the National Assembly on 29 June, and took office on 30 June. On 14 March 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.

Lee Hae-chan (born 10 July 1952) is a South Korean politician currently serving his seventh term in the National Assembly. On 27 August 2018, he was elected the leader of the centrist liberal Democratic Party of Korea.