By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
Park Seh-jik, chief of the country's largest conservative veterans' association, died Monday of acute pneumonia. He was 76.
Park was hospitalized June 29 after his health deteriorated due to overwork following ceremonies marking the 59th anniversary of the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War, the Korea Veterans' Association said in a news release.
A funeral service will be held at the Asan Medical Center in Seoul Friday, it said. Park is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
A retired Army major general, Park served as chairman of the 1988 Seoul Olympics Organizing Committee and a committee for the organization of the 2002 FIFA World Cup jointly held in South Korea and Japan.
He also held top government posts, including senior presidential secretary for security affairs between 1976 and 1979, director of the Agency for National Security Planning ― the predecessor of the National Intelligence Service ― sports minister and minister of government administration. He worked as Seoul mayor from 1990 to 1991.
He was reelected as chief of the association last April. He was a vocal critic of previous liberal governments' engagement policies toward North Korea.
Park led a nationwide campaign to reschedule the timeline for the planned transition of wartime operational control from the United States to South Korea, citing the North's lingering nuclear and missile threats.