Former Chairman Choi Won-seok, Who Led Dong-A Group's Heyday, Passes Away at 80 Years Old

Once Led Dong-A Group, Ranked 10th in Business World
Famous for Leading the 'Libya Canal Construction' Project

Choi Won-seok (80), former chairman of Dong-A Group, passed away on the morning of the 25th due to an illness.

Choi, the son of Dong-A Group founder Choi Jun-moon, was born in 1943 in Daejeon. He graduated from Hanyang University with a degree in economics and went to the United States for further studies, graduating from Georgetown University.

The late Choi Won-seok, former chairman of Dong-A Group, during his lifetime. [Image source=Yonhap News]

In 1966, at the age of 23, he was appointed president of Dong-A Concrete, and later led the group’s core businesses such as Dong-A Construction and Korea Express, elevating the group to the 10th largest conglomerate in the business world.

In his 40s, he directed the sites of consecutive domestic and international projects, including the Great Man-Made River Project in Libya, known as the world's largest civil engineering project.

However, as financial difficulties worsened due to the 1997 International Monetary Fund (IMF) foreign exchange crisis, he stepped down from the chairman position the following year. Dong-A Group was ultimately dissolved in 2001 after its parent company, Dong-A Construction, went bankrupt.

Choi continued to serve as chairman of the Gongsan Academy Foundation, established in 1985, and worked to promote the globalization of the Korean Wave (Hallyu).