100th Anniversary of Lee Byung-hee's Birth ① How Suwon Embraced Lee Byung-hee

Lee Byung-hee was not born in Suwon. Yet he is remembered by many as a 'person of Suwon' more strongly than anyone else.

Lee Byung-hee, born on August 1, 1926, in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, began his connection with Suwon even before his political career. He graduated from Samil Middle School's high school division in 1946. He then entered the Korea Military Academy and graduated in 1949 as the 8th class, embarking on a military career. Suwon was where he took his first steps as a politician after removing his military uniform.

In the November 26, 1963 sixth National Assembly election, 38-year-old Lee Byung-hee ran in Suwon as a Democratic Republican Party candidate. He entered the National Assembly in his first election with 15,493 votes (43.03%).

At the time Lee Byung-hee first became a National Assembly member, Suwon was a city in the early stages of growth.

In 1960, Suwon's population was 90,806. Five years later in 1965, it had grown to 123,134. The nation's industrialization and urbanization began in the 1960s. At this crossroads, Suwon's population and urban area expanded rapidly.

Lee Byung-hee's political growth began during the same period. He was subsequently chosen by Suwon voters in the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth general elections.

He traversed the national stage. In 1969, he became Chairman of the House Operations Committee and served as Vice Minister-at-Large from 1971 to 1975. He held positions including vice chairman of the Democratic Republican Party's Policy Committee, chairman of the Central Committee, and vice chairman of the party. His sphere of activity extended beyond politics as well.

From 1964 to 1980, he served as chairman of the Korean Basketball Association and held positions including president of the Asian Basketball Confederation and vice president of the International Basketball Federation.

Although his stage of activity expanded to central politics, government, sports circles, and overseas, his political base remained in Suwon.

This relationship became particularly clear after a long political hiatus.

When the new military government came to power in 1980, Lee Byung-hee was barred from political activities. He did not enter the 11th and 12th National Assemblies. In 1984, he was freed from political restrictions and participated in the New Democratic Republican Party created by Kim Jong-pil and others in 1987. The following year, he ran in Suwon in the thirteenth general election and returned to the National Assembly.

It was 25 years after he first received his gold badge.

South Korea's political landscape had changed significantly. Unlike the early Third Republic period when Lee Byung-hee first became a National Assembly member, direct presidential elections were restored and the party landscape shifted. Suwon, too, was no longer the city of the early 1960s.

But his political hometown remained unchanged.

His last election was in 1996.

At 70 years old, Lee Byung-hee ran as a United Liberal Democrats candidate in Jangan, Suwon. His political life, which began with the Democratic Republican Party, passed through the New Democratic Republican Party and the Democratic Liberal Party and reached the United Liberal Democrats. Although the parties changed, his last chosen constituency was Suwon.

As a result of the 15th general election, Lee Byung-hee was elected in Jangan, Suwon.

6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 13th, and 15th terms. From his first election at age 38 to his last election at age 70, Lee Byung-hee was elected to the National Assembly seven times in his constituency.

However, the relationship between Lee Byung-hee and Suwon cannot be fully explained by the mere number of 'seven consecutive terms.'

Local politics at that time were much more directly connected to residents' daily lives than they are now. In authorized biographies about Lee Byung-hee and local reminiscences, the figure of a politician who actively handled residents' employment, various civil complaints, and matters both large and small repeatedly emerges.

It is not unrelated that in Suwon, he earned the nickname 'a well-connected politician.'

The authorized biography published in 2020, "Well-Connected Politician Lee Byung-hee," also dealt with Suwon's change process alongside his life. Local media at the time of the biography's publication evaluated that Lee Byung-hee was involved in major changes in Suwon, including the relocation of the Gyeonggi Provincial Office, the attraction of Samsung Electronics, and the restoration of Suwon Hwaseong Fortress.

In his politics, Suwon was not merely a space for conducting elections.

There are recollections that while active at the central level, he maintained broad relationships with merchants, elders, and athletes in the Suwon area. Connecting political influence and personal relationships gained at the center to local issues was his political method.

In this way, Suwon became more than a simple electoral district for a politician—it became his political hometown.

Lee Byung-hee, who entered the National Assembly for the seventh time in 1996, did not complete his term.

He passed away at Ajou University Hospital in Suwon on January 13, 1997. At that time, he was still an active National Assembly member from Suwon.

Looking back, the time during which his political life and Suwon changed together spans well over 30 years.

When he received his first gold badge in 1963, Suwon was a city with a population of around 100,000. As industrialization accelerated, the population grew rapidly, and the development of East Suwon followed in the 1980s. By the 1990s, when Lee Byung-hee was last elected to the National Assembly, Suwon had already grown into a completely different metropolitan city.

Suwon also describes the 1960s and 1970s as the period when the foundations of today's urban development were laid.

Administrations changed and parties emerged and disappeared. There were times when he could not engage in political activities.

During that time, Suwon also changed.

What did not change was his political hometown.

The place that gave him his first gold badge was Suwon, and the place that ended his long political hiatus and sent him back to the National Assembly was also Suwon. The place that presented the last gold badge to a 70-year-old politician was also Suwon.

He was not born in Suwon. But it was Suwon where young Lee Byung-hee formed his connection, and it was Suwon that embraced politician Lee Byung-hee.

During the time Suwon nurtured Lee Byung-hee as a politician, Lee Byung-hee was changing the face of Suwon.