韩国官员好以名次表来衡量这个世界。因此当他们的总统李明博(Lee Myung-bak)未能入选《时代》杂志本年度"全球最具影响力的100人"榜单时，他们气得七窍生烟。2010年初的时候，李明博的名气还比不上象牙海岸的足球队员迪迪尔•德罗巴(Didier Drogba)，或者漂亮的女歌手嘎嘎(Lady Gaga)。
身为保守派总统，李明博曾试图忽视朝鲜。他被朝鲜的"边缘政策"推上世界舞台，或许是具有讽刺意味的天命。他对朝鲜半岛当前危机的处理，大大提高了他的声望。当美国国务卿希拉里•克林顿(Hillary Clinton)一再称赞你具有政治家风范，而朝鲜痛骂你是"人渣"时，你肯定做对了一些事。
3月26日晚朝鲜以鱼雷击沉韩国军舰后，多名睡眼惺忪的韩国内阁成员在他们的司机把他们送往地下指挥部的路上，担心冲突在即。另一艘韩国军舰已经朝着北方发射了数枚炮弹，因为该舰从雷达上发现其实可能只是鸟儿的可疑物。历史最终可能这样记载：一场末日战争当晚没有爆发，主要应归功于李明博。这位精明的前商人在童年时经历过海难。
比起2008年刚上任时的灾难性开端，这是一个非凡的转折。当时，由于担心疯牛病在国内蔓延，韩国民众大规模涌上街头示威，抗议进口美国牛肉。刚成立不久的亲美政府陷入风雨飘摇之中，李明博本人的支持率急剧下降到20%左右。随后，李明博与佛教徒爆发了一场恶吵，后者觉得他在政府里安插了太多新教徒，这让局面更加恶化。佛教徒占韩国人口的23%；新教徒占18%。李明博本人是新教徒。
示威者把李明博称作"老鼠总统"，在街头焚烧纸制的巨大老鼠肖像。
那些日子距今似乎已经很遥远了。在军舰沉没事件发生后的几周内，李明博展现出了威信和决心。这一点在控制韩国军方的急躁本能方面起到了至关重要的作用。他先是全力扑在营救工作上，接着要求展开国际调查。
韩国国防部官员称，这次袭击表明，朝鲜低估了李明博。他们认为，朝鲜大概没有料到，李明博会下令打捞军舰残骸和鱼雷，并与国际调查员共享所有信息。韩鲜原以为，李明博会和他们一样隐瞒实情。
朝鲜知道，李明博希望在2010年向世界展示自己的国家——作为"20国集团"的主席国。朝鲜显然以为，他肯定会用援助来安抚自己。
但李明博并非逆来顺受之辈。
此前，朝鲜独裁者金正日把几位韩国总统耍得团团转。在金正日眼里，李明博特别可恶：他中断了对朝鲜的大部分援助，结束了前两位自由派总统的无条件"阳光政策"。李明博上周下令断绝两国贸易关系之前，就已将朝鲜弃核谈判的进展列为援助条件了。
与他的很多做法一样，李明博的对朝政策坚持原则，但不很灵活。他提出向朝鲜提供价值400亿美元的经济刺激和基础设施援助，条件是朝鲜必须同意放弃核武器。该计划的明显缺陷在于，朝鲜绝不会接受它。
童年的贫苦生活养成了李明博坚定的性格。李明博1941年出生在日本，当时他父亲在那里的农场做工。他后来在韩国浦项港长大。由于家境贫寒，他用手推车贩卖水果和火柴，挣钱贴补家用。李明博在学业上极有天赋，考入了首尔名牌大学高丽大学，并担任学生会主席，展现出了政治才能。他曾因参加反对军事独裁者朴正熙的示威而遭到短暂关押。
李明博第一次进入公众视野是作为现代建设(Hyundai Engineering and Construction)的首席执行官。这是触角无所不在的现代集团内部的顶尖团队。李明博曾经有个外号叫"推土机"，还有一部流行电视剧《野望的岁月》(Years of Ambition)以他为原型，这部戏帮助他最终在2002年成为首尔市长。有点怪异的是，剧中李明博的扮演者现在担任韩国的文化部长。
作为一家建筑公司的主管，李明博建造了韩国总统官邸青瓦台(Blue House)。"如果我当时知道自己以后将住在这里，可能会把它造得更好，"去年他接受英国《金融时报》采访时开玩笑说道。
诋毁他的人将他描绘成一个威权统治者，而且他的政府在获取民众信任方面遭遇不少难题。政府经常派大量防暴警察对付抗议游行。国际运动组织也注意到在李明博任期内，韩国的言论自由状况有所恶化。
但他作为企业高管的技能为韩国政坛带来一种清新的经济视野。凭借在董事会会议室里学来的领导之道，他迅速引领韩国走出了经济衰退。李明博还在和韩国最棘手的两个问题作斗争：建立在死记硬背基础上、成本高昂的教育体制，以及进行产业多样化以减少高污染重工业的需要。
去年进军核能源出口行业，或许是他最令人意外的成就。为了赢得阿联酋一笔价值200亿美元的核反应堆销售合约，他与法国总统尼古拉•萨科齐(Nicolas Sarkozy)针锋相对。最终韩国大胜法国，震惊了全世界，人们普遍预测韩国将成为发展中国家的首选核反应堆供应商。
李明博的批评者认为，他过于偏爱大企业。而他赦免三星集团董事长李健熙(Lee Kun-hee)之举，向人们传递出一个关于韩国企业治理的极糟的信号。李健熙被指犯有情节极其恶劣的经济贿赂罪。
但在网球场上，他并没有偏袒的对象。为避免造成行为不当的观感，他拒绝与公司高管或记者打球。他只与教练对打。但即便是那样，他仍然是一个顽强的对手。
"真正让他感到愤怒的是别人以故意输球来讨好他。他希望对手尽可能用力击球，"青瓦台的一名官员表示。
金正日得到了警告。
译者/何黎
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001032871
South Korean officials love measuring the world in league tables. So they were fuming when their president, Lee Myung-bak, failed to be named as one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world this year. At the beginning of 2010, he simply was not in the same league as Ivorian footballer Didier Drogba or saucy songstress Lady Gaga.
As a conservative president, Mr Lee has tried to ignore North Korea, so it was perhaps his ironic destiny to be propelled on to the world stage by brinkmanship from Pyongyang. His handling of the present crisis on the peninsula has greatly boosted his stature. When Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, repeatedly calls you statesmanlike and North Korea lambasts you as a "scumball", you must be getting something right.
After North Korea torpedoed a South Korean warship on the night of March 26, many bleary-eyed cabinet members feared conflict was imminent as their drivers whisked them to the war bunker. A second South Korean ship had already blasted some shells northwards, picking up something on the radar screen that could have just been birds. History may ultimately portray Mr Lee, a hard-nosed businessman who survived a shipwreck himself in his childhood, as one of the key reasons an apocalyptic war did not erupt that night.
It is an extraordinary turn-around from the disastrous beginning to his presidency in 2008 when his pro-US government tottered in its infancy, hit by massive street protests over the import of American beef, feared to spread mad cow disease. His popularity plunged to about 20 per cent, worsened by an ugly spat with Buddhists who felt he was packing his government with fellow Protestant churchgoers. Buddhists make up 23 per cent of the population; Protestants 18 per cent.
To the protesters, he was President Chwi (the rat), rather than Lee. Giant papier mâché rodent effigies were burned in the streets.
Those days seem distant now. In the weeks after the loss of the warship, he exuded authority and resolve. This proved vital in controlling the hot-headed instincts of South Korea's military. He first focused almost exclusively on the rescue operation, before demanding a full international inquiry.
Defence ministry officials say the attack showed how the North underestimates Mr Lee. They think the North Koreans probably did not expect him to dredge up the wreck and torpedo, sharing everything with international investigators. North Korea expected him to do what they do: hush things up.
Pyongyang knew Mr Lee wanted to showcase his nation to the world in 2010 – as president of the Group of 20 leading economies. Surely he'll just pay us off with aid, it evidently thought.
But Mr Lee is a tough nut to crack.
For Kim Jong-il, the dictator who has led a few South Korean presidents round in circles, Mr Lee is a particular figure of hate because he has switched off most largesse to the North, ending the unconditional "sunshine policy" of two previous liberal presidents. Even before severing trade last week, he had made aid contingent on progress in talks to dismantle Pyongyang's atomic bombs.
Like so much of what Mr Lee does, his policy towards the North is principled but inflexible. He has offered $40bn (€33bn, £28bn) of economic incentives and infrastructure, should Pyongyang agree to dismantle its nuclear weapons. The plan's obvious flaw is that North Korea will never accept it.
His single-mindedness was forged in an indigent childhood. Born in Japan in 1941, where his father was a labourer on a ranch, Mr Lee grew up in poverty in the South Korean port of Pohang and helped supplement the family income by selling fruit and matches from a cart. He was an academic high-flyer and got into Seoul's elite Korea University, where he showed his political flair by heading the student union. He was briefly imprisoned for demonstrating against military autocrat Park Chung-hee.
He first came to public attention as chief executive of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, the blue riband outfit within the sprawling Hyundai conglomerate. He was nicknamed the "bulldozer" and was the model for a popular soap opera, Years of Ambition, which eased his eventual path to become mayor of Seoul in 2002. Somewhat bizarrely, the current culture minister is the actor who played Mr Lee's alter ego on television.
As a construction boss, he built the presidential palace, the Blue House. "If I'd known I was going to live here, I'd have done a better job," he quipped in an interview with the Financial Times last year.
His detractors paint him as autocratic and his government has had trouble building trust with the people. It is liable to send alarming numbers of riot police to protests; and international campaign groups have observed a deterioration of freedom of speech under Mr Lee's presidency.
But his skills as an executive have brought a fresh economic vision to South Korean politics. He quickly steered the country out of an economic downturn, with a leadership style learnt in the boardroom. Mr Lee is also battling to combat two of the country's thorniest problems: an expensive education system based on rote-learning and the need to diversify out of dirty heavy industry.
Perhaps his greatest coup was breaking into nuclear power exports last year. He went head-to-head with France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to win a $20bn reactor sale to the United Arab Emirates. Seoul shocked the world by trouncing the French and is widely tipped to become the reactor supplier of choice to the developing world.
His critics argue he is too enamoured of big business and that he sent an appalling message about corporate governance in South Korea by pardoning Lee Kun-hee, the chairman of Samsung Group, for egregious financial corruption.
But he has no such favourites on the tennis court. He refuses to play with company executives or reporters to avoid perceptions of impropriety. He only plays coaches. Even then, he is still a dogged competitor.
"The thing that really makes him mad is if anyone tries to flatter him by letting him win. He wants his opponent to hit the ball as hard as they can," said one Blue House official.
Kim Jong-il has been warned.
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