Jang Seong-man (, 2 November 1932 – 6 December 2015) was a South Korean pastor, educator, and politician. He served as a Member of the National Assembly for the North District of

Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

from 1981 to 1988; he also served as the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly from 1987 to 1988. In addition to his career in politics, Jang established various universities such as Busan Digital University and Dongseo University; he served as the chairman of the latter from 2001 to 2008.

Career

Born in Busan, Jang attended Busan Technical High School, and earned a bachelor's degree in theology from the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...

. He then worked as a pastor, after which he started working in the education sector. In 1965, he established the very first vocational college in South Korea, Dongseo Christian Vocational School, which is now officially known as Kyungnam College of Information & Technology. In January of 1981, Jang started his political career as a founding member of the

Democratic Justice Party The Democratic Justice Party (DJP; ) was the ruling party of South Korea from 1981 to 1990. History Chun Doo-hwan had become the country's de facto leader after leading a military coup in December 1979, and was elected president in his own r ...

(DJP), which was the predecessor of the

Liberty Korea Party The Liberty Korea Party () was a conservative political party in South Korea that was described variously as right-wing, right-wing populist, or far-right. Until February 2017, it was known as the Saenuri Party (), and before that as the Hann ...

(LKP). He was elected unopposed to the National Assembly as a representative of the North District of Busan in the 1981 election. He was then re-elected in the 1985 election. In 1987, he was elected as the sole Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly after the United Democratic Party (UDP) decided to not put its candidate due to internal conflict. Jang lost his National Assembly seat to Moon Jung-soo in 1988. He also lost while running as an independent candidate in the 1992 election. After leaving politics, Jang established Dongseo University in 1991 and served as its chairman until 2008. In 2001, he founded Dongseo Cyber University.

Death

Jang passed away on 6 December 2015 at the age of 83 due to a chronic disease. Jang's widow, Park Dong-soon (born 1939), is the current chairwoman of Dongseo University. He also left three children, including Jang Je-kuk (born 1964), the current president of the university; Jang Je-won (born 1967), a Member of the National Assembly (2008–2012, 2016–present); and Jang Ju-young.

Controversies

On 8 March 1988, Jang faced protests from opposition MPs after he and the DJP rushed a revised electoral law through without any agreements. It was reported that Yoo Soo-ho, the father of

Yoo Seong-min Yoo Seong-min (; born 7 January 1958), also known as Yoo Seung-min, is a South Korean economist and politician. Yoo is a former member of the National Assembly (South Korea), National Assembly and was the Bareun Party's presidential nominee in ...

, was also involved with the legislative controversy. On 17 April 1997, Jang was arrested on corruption charges. It was alleged that he set up around 5 billion won (approximately $5 million) in a Dongseo University slush fund and misappropriated it. The embezzlement scandal led around 20 professors at the college to resign.

Election results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chang, Song-man 1932 births 2015 deaths South Korean politicians South Korean educators South Korean pastors