Chung Ju-yung

Chung Ju-yung is a South Korean Entrepreneur , founder of the group Hyundai, born with Tongchon (today in North Korea) in 1915, deceased in 2001.

Wire of peasant, having stopped his studies at the elementary school, Chung leaves its family as of the 16 years age and exerts various trades: operate, employed of a merchant of Riz, repairer of cars. This last activity leads it to found, in 1967, the family group Hyundai, become today one of principal the Chaebol S South Korean, present in various sectors: automotive engineering (6th world rank), naval construction, precision mechanics, petrochemistry, television apparatuses…

In spite of the fortune which it constituted after 1967, Chung always insisted on the simplicity of its lifestyle: he lived in a modest house of seven parts made of materials of recovery and, until a advanced age, traversed 5 km per day to go to foot to his office.

Chung Ju-yung chaired the group Hyundai of 1967 to 1987, with a reputation of strikebreaker. Between 1987 and 1992, violent incidents still opposed the leaders of Hyundai, hostile to the recognition of the trade union rights, with the trade-union representatives, in particular of the power station KCTU.

Whereas the development of the group had profited from the support of the military regime of the general Park Chung-hee, Chung was itself candidate with the South Korean presidential election of 1992, where it collected 16% of the votes. He was condemned for embezzlements of his company to finance his electoral campaign.

After a first voyage in North Korea in 1989, Chung Ju-yung was implied in the development of the intercoréens exchanges, to which the subsidiary company of the group Hyundai Asan contributes. In June 1998, the former chairman of the group crossed symbolically the border North-Korean with a herd of 500 heads of cattle, offered to the North Korea.

After the financial crisis of 1997, the dismantling of the chaebols particularly aimed at the group Hyundai in 45 distinct companies, whose majority remain however controlled by wire and the nephews of the founder president.

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