Park Tae-joon (Korean: 박태준; 24 October 1927 – 13 December 2011) was a South Korean business tycoon and politician who briefly served as the prime minister of South Korea in 2000. His most renowned accomplishment includes founding of POSCO and growing it into one of the world's largest and most successful steel companies during his multi-decade tenure as chairman and CEO. For this, he was often called the "Korean Andrew Carnegie". Earlier in his life, he served in the South Korean Army and led several platoons during the Korean War and eventually reaching the rank of Major General. He also founded POSTECH (leading research university in Korea), the Pohang Steelers soccer team, and the POSCO TJ Park Foundation which was preceded by the Steel Scholarship Foundation. His pen name was Chungam.
Early years
He was born on October 24, 1927, in Busan. When he was six years old, he moved to Japan where his father was working, but returned to his homeland following Korea's independence.
Education Whilst in Japan he entered the Waseda University, but returned to Korea without graduating. Following his return he studied at the Korea Military Academy and became a 6th Graduate, followed by a time of study at National Defense University Graduate School. In 1945, Park Tae-joon, who was studying mechanical engineering at Waseda University in Japan, returned to Korea after the liberation and immediately enrolled in the 6th class of the South Korean Military Academy (Korean Military Academy). During his cadet years, he formed a teacher-student relationship with Captain Park Chung Hee, who was then the commander of the 1st company and an instructor in ballistics. After being commissioned as a lieutenant, he experienced the Korean War firsthand, dedicating his youth to defending the country with his exceptional leadership skills. Following the military coup on May 16, 1961, Park Tae-joon was selected by Park Chung Hee, the chairman of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction, to serve as his chief secretary and later began working as the highest-ranking official in charge of industry and commerce. He and other Korean military officers completed a bachelor's degree in a four-year standard university as required by the government. They had served in the army without completing a standard degree course after the liberation and it was the government's measure to build the Korea Military Academy (then called the South Korea Guard Academy) for officers to have a standard degree course (after 11th graduation). The government had noticed that they needed a commissioned education for officers to have bachelor's degree course in government level. The degree awarded from Dankook University is the only one which is acknowledged by Korea.
Military service
In 1948, Park graduated from the Korea Military Academy and was then commissioned as shavetail. He was awarded the Chungmu Order of Military Merit and the Hwarang order of military merit after participating in the Korean War. He did not take part in May 16 coup, but entrusted his family in case of failing Park Chung Hee. After the coup, he became a member of commerce[trade] and industry in Nation re-building supreme council and had a part in the first five-year Korea economic development plan. In 1963, Park was discharged as a Major General. He was awarded the Chungmu Order of Military Merit (1950, 1952), the Hwarang order of military merit (1951, 1953, 1954), the Order of Civil Merit, the Rose of Sharon Medal (1974), the National Order of Legion of Honor (Légion d'honneur) (1990), the Norway order of military merit (1991). After his death, he was conferred posthumous honors of the Ching[Manchu] dynasty presented merit. He was granted an honorary engineering doctorate degree from Carnegie Mellon University, The University of Sheffield, Birmingham University, and The University of Waterloo. He was also granted an honorary doctorate in economics from M.V. in Russia.
Commercial life After he transferred to the first reserve, he became the president of TaeguTec in 1964. One year later, the company turned around from deficit. To this day, TaeguTec is one of the only Korean companies that Warren Buffett has invested in. He became the president of Posco in April 1968. 10 years later, POSCO was a global company, and by 2010 was the world's third largest steelmaker.
Political activities In 1980, Park entered the political world because of the possibility of being appointed as the first member of the Nation Preservation Legislation Council. He was elected to be the 11th member of the National Assembly under the Democratic Justice Party and he served as a director of the finance committee in the National Assembly. After three similar parties were merged, he became chairman of the Democratic Liberal Party. Park resigned as president of POSCO in October 1992. In the beginning of POSCO's establishment, Park used it to protect himself from political draft. He laid down the president position right after the establishment of a new government of discord with Kim Young-Sam and his government. He submitted a letter of resignation in October of 5th, 1992. Park's honorary president rejected the position of election task force from Kim Young-Sam's Democratic Liberal Party. On the same day, POSCO had an emergency board meeting to reverse his decision of resignation from POSCO. Discord with Kim Young-Sam caused Park to resign from his position in the National Assembly. Park wandered from place to place abroad because he was suspected of taking about 3.9 billion from POSCO sub-venders. There was a widespread doubt that there was to be any targeted investigation of him. In 1997, he successfully came back and was elected as a member of the National Assembly in Buk-gu Pohang by blaming President Kim for the economic failure. He became the chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, then supported Kim Dae Joong for the 15th presidency with Kim Jong Pil. He took office as the chairman in the government of Kim Dae Joong in 2000, but he resigned his spot because the government wrongfully accused him of property fraud. The accusations were later found to be false by a Korean court. In his later years he participated in awarding the Chungam prize every year.
Awards and achievements
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