Kim Woo-Choong (;19 December 1936 – 9 December 2019) was a South Korean businessman who was the founder and chairman of Daewoo Group until its collapse in 1999.

Early life and education

Born in

Daegu Daegu (; ), formerly spelled Taegu and officially Daegu Metropolitan City (), is a city in southeastern South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; the fourth-largest List of provincial-level ci ...

, Kim is the son of a former school teacher-turned provincial governor of

North Gyeongsang Province North Gyeongsang Province (, ) is a province in eastern South Korea, and with an area of , it is the largest province in the Korean peninsula. The province was formed in 1896 from the northern half of the former Gyeongsang province, and remaine ...

, who was kidnapped and taken to

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

while Kim was a teenager. Kim became a newspaper delivery boy and sold various items. Kim's father was a mentor of South Korean president

Park Chung Hee Park Chung Hee (; ; November14, 1917October26, 1979) was a South Korean politician and army officer who served as the third president of South Korea from 1962 after he seized power in the May 16 coup of 1961 until Assassination of Park Chung ...

, who eventually supported Kim. Kim graduated from Kyunggi High School, then finished his education with a Bachelor of Economics at

Yonsei University Yonsei University () is a Private university, private Christian university, Christian research university located in Seoul, South Korea. Yonsei is one of the three most prestigious universities in the country, part of a group referred to as SK ...

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

Career

In 1967, Kim began a small textiles trading corporation with five other associates. Kim rapidly expanded the renamed Daewoo Group by using borrowed money to purchase near-bankrupt companies. By the 1980s, Daewoo ranked as the third-largest

chaebol A chaebol ( , ; , ) is a large industrial South Korean conglomerate run and controlled by an individual or family. A chaebol often consists of multiple diversified affiliates, controlled by a person or group. Several dozen large South Kore ...

. By the 1990s, Daewoo ranked second largest in assets and third in revenues. However, due to its poor financial structure; Daewoo plummeted into chaos when the Asian Financial Crisis hit in 1997. It sold off nearly 50 subsidiaries. By 1999, Daewoo, the second largest conglomerate in South Korea with interests in about 100 countries, went bankrupt, with debts of about US$50 billion at the time. Kim fled to Vietnam, and was charged with accounting fraud worth 41 trillion won (US$43.4 billion), illegally borrowing 9.8 trillion won (US$10.3 billion), and laundering US$3.2 billion out of the country while in exile. He was wanted by

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...

for his irresponsible spending as chairman of Daewoo. Kim was arrested soon after he returned to South Korea on 14 June 2005, and apologized "for hurting the nation" and accepted full responsibility for the collapse of the group, adding that he was "ready to accept whatever the authorities have in store for him," according to '' The Chosun Ilbo''.

Criminal charges

In May 2006, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of charges including embezzlement and accounting fraud. In addition, 21 trillion won (US$22 billion) of his fortune was seized and he was fined an additional 10 million won (about US$10,000). Citing health concerns, his sentence was reduced to 8 1/2 years; on 30 December 2007, he was pardoned by President Roh Moo-hyun. South Korean presidents traditionally hand out pardons for the new year.

Death

On 9 December 2019, Kim died due to

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

at Ajou University Hospital in Suwon, 10 days before his 83rd birthday.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Woo-choong 1936 births 2019 deaths People from Daegu 20th-century South Korean businesspeople Yonsei University alumni South Korean Roman Catholics South Korean founders of automobile manufacturers Recipients of the Legion of Honour South Korean fraudsters Recipients of South Korean presidential pardons South Korean football executives South Korean football chairmen and investors Gwangsan Kim clan People convicted of embezzlement