Chang Kang Jae; South Korean Publisher

Chang Kang Jae, 48, one of South Korea’s most important newspaper publishers. He was the chairman of the Hankook Ilbo-Korea Times newspaper group, one of South Korea’s largest newspaper conglomerates. The group publishes five dailies in Korea and a newspaper for Koreans in the United States. Hankook Ilbo (Korean Daily) is printed in New York, Washington, Seattle, Los Angeles and Chicago. Hankook Ilbo began U.S. publication in 1969 in Los Angeles shortly after the first major Korean immigration to the United States began. Its circulation in the United States is 150,000, including 50,000 in the Los Angeles area. Chang joined the newspaper group, founded by his father, Chang Key Young, in 1963 and was promoted to chief planner and to vice president in the 1970s. Upon the death of his father in 1977, he took over the group and developed it into one of South Korea’s largest. In Seoul on Monday, of liver cancer.