Trailblazer of Korean auto industry dies at 88

By Nam Hyun-woo

Ha Dong-hwan, honorary chairman of Hangwon Group, died at the age of 88, after earning a reputation of paving the way for Korea's automotive industry to stand as the country's growth driver.

According to the group on Monday, Ha passed away Sunday after struggling with a chronic disease. He is known for establishing Dong-A Motor, which has now become SsangYong Motor.

Ha was born in 1930 in Gaesong, North Korea, and spent his early days as a junior engineer at auto repair shops in Seoul.

At the age of 24, he established an auto workshop named after himself in Mapo-gu, Seoul, and assembled buses out of old oil drums and used engines and gearboxes abandoned by the U.S. military, which gave him the nickname of “King of the oil drum bus.”

Such an experiment allowed him to manufacture real cars and he set up an official company in 1962, making buses for domestic use. The workshop was transformed into a 6,600 square-meter factory in Guro-dong, Seoul, and became Korea's first factory manufacturing buses.

The company quickly expanded its presence in the budding domestic automotive industry. Reportedly, more than 70 percent of the buses in Seoul in the 1960s were made in Ha's factory.

In 1966, Ha's company became the first car exporter of Korea, after shipping HDH R-66 buses to Brunei. The 38-seater model had a 150-horsepower diesel engine on top of a Nissan-made chassis.

After the first export, Ha's buses were shipped to Vietnam in 1967 and a number of other countries later. In 1974, the company introduced jeeps and manufactured other special purpose vehicles such as fire engines two years later.

On the back of such successes, Ha changed the company's name to Dong-A Motor in 1977 and continued expanding his business. In 1984, Dong-A Motor acquired Keohwa, which manufactured the Korando SUV.

In 1986, Ha decided to sell the company to SsangYong Group, whose business portfolio was mainly comprised of cement and other heavy industries, after suffering financial difficulties amid the acquisition of Keohwa. Also, Ha reportedly preferred to run the company without loans.

After selling his stakes to SsangYong, he established Hanwon Group, which manufactured trailers and produced other construction materials. The group is now operating a golf club in Gyeonggi Province, art museum and an education foundation.

Ha is survived by one son, three daughters and his wife, and will be buried today.