South Korea's New President To Donate His Salary

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Apr 1st 2008 at 8:02AM

South Korea's new president Lee Myung-Bak seems determined to prove to dedication to the poor. Not only did he pledge during his election campaign to donate his entire fortune (estimated to be around $30.2 million) save for a retirement house in Seoul, but now he has said he will donate his presidential salary to help the underprivileged. CNN reports that he made the pledge during a meeting with reporters on Sunday. He made his fortune as a CEO of an engineering and construction company and when he was the mayor of Seoul from 2002 to 2004 he also donated his salary. He will be donating his salary each year of his five year term. Korea.net says that he received about 16.5 million won ($16,640) in his first presidential pay packet on March 10. Now if only our Presidential candidates would make that kind of pledge.

Tags: Lee Myung-Bak, LeeMyung-bak, president, south korea, SouthKorea