Daekyo chairman named as sports council chief

Kang Young-joong, new president of the Korea Council of Sport for All (KCSA)

By Baek Byung-yeul

Daekyo Group Chairman Kang Young-joong has been elected as the new president of the Korea Council of Sport for All (KCSA) which works on projects to improve the health of Koreans through sports, on Monday. The KCSA is an affiliate organization of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism,

The nomination was made during the KCSA’s meeting of its representatives at a hotel in southern Seoul. At a meeting, the 66-year-old chairman of the country’s largest education firm earned 82 votes from the representatives, beating out Chung Byung-kwan, Kyung Hee University professor, who earned 57 votes.

Kang, who also serves as an honorary vice president of the Badminton World Federation, will take over the remaining term of office from his predecessor Rep. Suh Sang-kee of the ruling Saenuri Party, which ends February 2016. Rep. Suh stepped down from the post last month as the National Assembly's ethics screening and advisory committee banned lawmakers from holding additional positions.

“I will actively implement measures to improve the health of Koreans,” Kang said after the election result was read out.

The KCSA was founded in 1991 to enhance people’s health and improve the quality of life by carrying out various kinds of promotion campaigns including supporting amateur sports clubs.

The KCSA will integrate with the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) by March 2016 as the National Assembly passed the revised National Sports Promotion Act to provide more assistance for the promotion of sports for all people.