FACTBOX: Five facts on South Korea's new leader Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) - Five facts about Lee Myung-bak, who will be inaugurated as South Korea's president on Monday:

- Lee was born in Osaka, Japan, where his father was a migrant farm worker. Lee returned with his impoverished family to South Korea following Japan's 1945 defeat in World War Two, which marked the end of its colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.

- Attended Korea University; served a brief prison stint for his work as a student activist and landed a job at Hyundai Construction. He became its CEO when he was 36 and later led several parts of the Hyundai Group. His life story became part a popular local TV drama about the country's business heroes.

- He turned to politics when he was in his 50s and was elected to the National Assembly for the first time in 1992. Took office as mayor of Seoul in July 2002. Built several major projects, including tearing down an elevated highway in the centre of the city and replacing it with a river park.

- As president, Lee says he would restore the market economy, make it easier for overseas businesses to invest in South Korea and curb unlawful labor protests.

- Lee, a devout Christian, is an avid tennis player who has one son and three daughters. His biography says his drinking capacity is one bottle of beer.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)