Honorary Chairman Lee Joon-yong of Daelim Industrial Group announced on Aug. 18 that he will donate his entire fortune, which comes to around 200 billion won to the cause of the unification of the two Koreas. He told Chairman Bang Sang-hoon of the Chosun Ilbo his intention to donate the funds when he called on the chairman of the daily morning paper at his office in Taepyeong-ro, downtown Seoul.
Lee said he could have founded a foundation to carry out various activities for the unification of the motherland, but a lot of money could go into the expenses. He thought the most effective way for the good of the public would be to donate it to an organization that already exists, like Warren Buffet did. Buffet donated his money to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is named after the former chairman of Microsoft and his wife. Buffet is said to have donated some 30.2 trillion won the foundation since 2006 thus far.
The honorary chairman is the eldest son of the late founder of Daelim Industrial Group, Jae-joon, who died in 1995. It is very rare for a second-generation tycoon like Joon-yong to donate his entire wealth to a social service foundation.
The honorary chairman lost his wife to an illness last December, and he decided to donate his entire fortune to charitable causes after her death.
After his wife passed away, Lee thought long and hard about what to do with his money. He eventually decided to donate his entire fortune to the cause of unification, namely the Tongil and Nanum Foundation, so that it can be used for various activities dedicated to the unification of the divided peninsula, particularly to bring reunification as early as possible.
Lee also said the donation means a lot to all employees of the group, which observed its 59th anniversary this year, and his five children, including three sons. He said he always thought he should do something to make a legacy his family could be proud of. His first son, Hae-chang, is the vice chairman of Daellim Group. He has five children, and they also donated 500 million won given from their late grandfather to social causes.
Before the announcement, Lee often talked about the film, “International Market (Kukje Shijang),” which is about a refugee from North Korea and his life in the South after arriving in Busan on a U.S. naval vessel, which carried numerous North Korean refugees from the port of Rajin, North Korea when the U.S. military forces pulled out of North Korea follwoing the Chinese military forces joining the Korean war on North Korean side in 1952. Lee recalled to his friends that he shed tears throughout the movie, remembering his hard times during the Korean War and the struggles that Korea went through to build its economy from ashes to the level where it is today. He will also urge the employees of the group to make donations to causes including the unification of the motherland.
Daelim Group started out with the establishment of Daelim Industrial in 1939. This flagship unit leads the engineering, construction and petrochemical operations. Daelim is ranked 22nd among Korean business groups and consists of 12 affiliates together with organizations devoted educational and cultural pursuits.
“Our group’s activities span building and housing construction, civil engineering, industrial facilities, petrochemicals, information and communications, automobiles, education and cultural activities,” the company said. “As such, we are closely involved in the lives of people inside and outside Korea. Our corporate philosophy stresses the ideal of improving people’s lives by offering customers the highest possible value."
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