Events planned to remember late Hyundai Group founder

The family of the late Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung is holding various events this month to celebrate what would have been his 100th birthday.

The events marking the life of the late Korean tycoon started on Wednesday with a classical music concert at the Seoul Art Center in southern Seoul.

The orchestra Staatskapelle Dresden performed Beethoven’s second and third symphonies under the direction of conductor Chung Myung-whun.

Some 2,800 employees and executives of the Hyundai Group attended the concert. Also in attendance were Chung Mong-joon, the late founder’s son, former presidential candidate and current chairman of Asan Foundation; Hyun Jeong-eun, chairwoman of Hyundai Group and daughter-in-law of the late founder; Chung Eui-su, grandson and current vice chairman of Hyundai Motor Group; and Chung Ji-sun, grandson and chairman of the Hyundai Department Store Group.

The concert was organized by a special committee celebrating the birth of the late Hyundai Group founder.

A special committee set up to celebrate the late founder said in a statement they decided to hold the concert to look back at the life of Chung, who “never stopped accepting new challenges and created something from nothing.”

The actual main event is scheduled to take place on Nov. 24 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

Some 500 delegates from the political arena, as well as leading businessmen, are expected to attend including the late chairman’s second oldest son and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo. The chairman, who is the oldest of Chung Ju-yung’s children alive today, will make a special speech as the head of the family at the event.

An exhibition of photos taken during the founder’s lifetime will be displayed for two days from Nov. 23 at the same hotel.

A scholastic symposium, where 20 research papers from leading scholars will be released, will be held on Nov. 23.

“We expect that the message of hope for the Korean economy and society will be shown in a new light through the life of the late chairman Chung Ju-yung,” the committee said.

The late chairman was born in Gangwon on Nov. 25, 1915. He died at the age of 86 on March 21, 2001.

Chung Ju-yung was a leading figure in Korea’s conglomerates, which transformed the country’s economy. He led Hyundai as it competed for the nation’s top business group with Samsung, led by lifelong rival Lee Byung-chull.

He had eight sons and one daughter. Six, including Chung Mong-koo and Chung Mong-hun, are alive today.

BY MOON BYUNG-JOO [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]