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My father was a Little League dictator. That really affected me, his control-freakery, his impunity, his arbitrary unreasonable power.

Everything we did was criticized. For about thirty years we lived with the world against us, accusing us of things we didn't do!

My father's biggest achievement was to motivate the South Korean people, to show them we could become prosperous if we worked hard. He taught me to love my country, and serve my country.

While many people overseas envy Korea's development, it is true that society has many problems such as economic polarization and a low birthrate.

Up until the end of the Bush Administration, there was indifference to the North Korean suffering under Kim Jong-Il.

With Taiwan, it took about 40 years to go from an authoritarian to a democratic society.

From the early 1960s to the mid-1980s - the era of military dictatorship when South Korea was rebuilding itself from a postwar economic basket case to a humming, modern nation - military schools were the track of choice for ambitious young men.

In my speeches, I always condemned communism, national-socialism and fascism.

I am just sorry my own mother had to live under that regime for most of her life. I was lucky. I got out and, 14 years later, Czechoslovakia became a free country. So I feel anger, even fury, at this bloody system that ruined so many people's lives for no reason whatsoever.

Well when I was young, actually not just me, but we were all poor. Korea used to be one of the poorest countries in the world. Despite such circumstances, I was very, very fortunate to be blessed with having parents who always instilled in a spirit of can-do spirit.