By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
A self-made businessman has donated land worth 30 billion won ($25 million) to KAIST.
Kim Byeong-ho, 68, who runs the Seojeon Garden in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, donated 94,700 square meters of farm land to the school.
``I could not study enough due to poverty, and I hope KAIST will make my dream come true. I wish the school would develop the world's best science technology and make Korea a country where all people can live well,'' he said at the donation ceremony held at the school in Daejeon, Wednesday.
Kim graduated from elementary school in 1958 at the age of 17 due to the Korean War. He came to Seoul from his hometown in North Jeolla Province with 76 won, which was worth a sack of barley at that time.
Working hard to make money, he opened a car parts shop a year later and started a bus company in 1967. He bought land in Yongin and opened his garden in 1988 with 5,200 chestnut trees and farms for deer and ducks.
Kim, whose personal philosophy is ``Making money is technology, spending it is art,'' began to donate in 2004 after suffering a stroke. In 2005, he set up a scholarship foundation. Kim and his wife also promised to donate their bodies after death to Seoul National University Hospital.
Last year, he heard the news that KAIST President Suh Nam-pyo was reforming the school by adopting lectures in English and strict tenure screening. ``I decided to donate to KAIST at that moment, as development in technology can make a country rich and powerful,'' he said.
``We'll devise how to use his donation, so that Kim's goodwill can bear fruit at KAIST," Suh said. ``We'll also name a new IT center building after the Kim couple.''