Hyundai founder passes away at age of 86

Chung Ju-Yung, Hyundai Group founder and a giant in the Korean economy, died at 10 p.m. Wednesday evening. He was 86.

The business tycoon, who helped forge Korea`s economic miracle after the Korean War, died due to respiratory trouble caused by pneumonia, according to his doctors at Asan Medical Center in Seoul, which he established. Present at his bedside at the time of death were his five sons, Mong-Koo, Mong-Keun, Mong-Hun, Mong-Joon and Mong-Il, and his brothers, Soon-Yung, Se-Yung, Sang-Yung and Soon-Yung, a Hyundai official said.

Chung had been frequently hospitalized or cared for by doctors at his home in Chongun-dong, downtown Seoul, since the spring of last year, when the Group fell into a liquidity crisis amid a family feud among his sons over the managerial rights.

Born into a poor farming family in Tongchon, Kangwon Province, now in North Korea, in 1915, the future billionaire ran away from home at the age of 15 for a better life in Seoul. Armed with faithfulness and diligence, Chung founded Korea`s largest conglomerate, leading the economic development of Korea. With the ``can-do’’ spirit, he constructed the Kyongbu (Seoul-Pusan) Highway, advanced into the Middle East construction market in pursuit of the ``oil dollar,`` and solidified the basis for the development of the auto and heavy industries in Korea, then a barren land of manufacturing industries. He also was a key player in Seoul`s winning the right to stage the 1988 Olympics and its successful hosting of the games.

Chung made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1992, then paved the way for inter-Korean economic cooperation by crossing the border via the truce village of Panmunjom to North Korea in 1998. He took with him about 100 head of cattle as a gift to the North.

Chung`s body was moved to his home in Chongun-dong and altars were set up at all the Hyundai companies, both at home and abroad. A family funeral will be held at the house on Sunday and Chung will be buried at his ancestral cemetery in Changu-ri, Hanam City, Kyonggi Province.

Kim Dong-Won daviskim@donga.com