Hyundai Asan is an arm of the Hyundai Group and a major investor in North Korea. The company manages a number of projects, including the Kumgang-san tourist resort and road/rail building operations. It is also involved in the Kaesong Industrial Park project.
Hyundai split
The family-controlled Hyundai Group, which used to be South Korea's largest Chaebol, was split into three sub-groups after the Asian financial crisis. Chung Mong-hun was involved in a power struggle with his elder brother, Chung Mong-koo, who heads another part of the Hyundai Group, the automaker Hyundai Motor Company.
Accusations of corruption
Hyundai Asan, a South Korean Chaebol in charge of joint ventures with North Korea, has faced accusations of being a vehicle for ilegally transferring US$100 million to North Korea from the government of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. (See North-South presidential summit corruption allegations for details.) The money was supposedly used to persuade North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il to attend the inter-Korean summit in 2000. Hyundai Asan is building an industrial park, cross-border roads and railway lines in North Korea. The delay of the projects, due to political dificulties, put severe financial strains on the company. The head of Hyundai Asan, Chung Mong-hun, faced corruption and embezzlement charges. Chung was tried on charges of manipulating company accounting records to hide the secret transfers and embezzling more than twelve million dollars of company funds to pay bribes.
Suicide of Hyundai Asan chairman
The 54-year-old Hyundai Asan chief committed suicide on August 4, 2003. He leaped from the twelfth storey of Hyundai's headquarters in the center of Seoul. A janitor found his body in shrubbery near a parking lot a few hours after his death leap. Investigators said Mr. Chung, in several suicide notes, requested that his ashes be scattered over the North Korean Kumgang-san tourist resort. He aso asked to be forgiven for what he called his foolish act. He urged that joint ventures between the two Koreas continue.
Recent developments
The first goods produced in the new Kaesong Industrial Park in North Korea are expected to come off the assembly-line in late November.
See also
External links
Hyundai Asan website (Korean)
