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Kim Yuna among Forbes Asia’s philanthropy heroes

June 28, 2014

South Korean figure skating icon Kim Yuna paints portraits of South Korean World Cup players on a wall of a gas station in Gwacheon, south of Seoul, on June 16, 2014, to wish for the squad’s great performance in the ongoing World Cup in Brazil. (Newsis)

By Nam Kwang-sik

(Yonhap) — Four South Koreans, including retired figure skating star Kim Yuna, have joined a list of notable philanthropists for 2014 in the Asia-Pacific region, which was made by U.S. economic magazine Forbes.

Last Wednesday, the magazine said on its website that Kim Yuna “started her philanthropy back in 2007, when she first reached stardom, and has given US$2.4 million to causes ranging from relief for victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines last November to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011.”

The other South Koreans featured in the list were Jeong Mun-sul, 76, founder of Mirae Corp., Min Nam-kyu, 67, chairman of JK Group and Park Hui-jeong, 83, a former professor.

Jeong donated $256 million to KAIST, or the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, where he once served as chairman for information technology and business technology research.

After retiring from his semiconductor-equipment manufacturing company, he gave the reins of the company to a longtime employee rather than to a family member, Forbes said. It is very rare in South Korea.

Min agreed in April to give Korea University $1 million a year for five years, the magazine said, adding that Park endowed a $100,000 scholarship fund for KAIST students in January.