Қос Дракон тобының тарихы

South Korean business conglomerate
the automobile manufacturer company

SsangYong Group (Korean: 쌍용그룹, Ssang Yong Geurup) was a South Korean chaebol (a Korean family controlled conglomerate). Tracing its origins to 1939, by the 1970s it was one of the largest enterprise groups in the country, before disintegrating in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Internationally, the group was best known as the parent of Ssangyong Engineering and Construction, SsangYong Cement, SsangYong Paper, Ssangyong Oil Refining, Ssangyong Investment & Securities, and SsangYong Motor Company among its many interests. The name SsangYong is taken from the Hanja characters 雙龍, which translate literally to "Double Dragon."

Kim Sung kon established his first manufacturing business, Samkong Fat Ltd., in his native North Gyeongsang Province in 1939, profiting greatly. Kim used the profits to help charter the Koryo Fire & Marine Insurance Company in 1947, through which he acquired the Chosun Spinning Company's factory in Anyang, Gyeonggi, which became the Kumsung Textile Company. This factory was destroyed in the Korean War in 1950, but Kim rebuilt it in 1954 with assistance from the United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency. By the end of the decade, Kumsung was the second largest textile manufacturer in the country. Kim Jong pil agreed to this, and Kim Sung kon soon became a leading member of Park's Democratic Republican Party (DRP). Kim became the leader of the so called "TK group" in the DRP, consisting of himself (as party finance chair), Baek Nam uck (policy director), Gil Jae ho (secretary general), and Kim Jin man (floor leader in the National Assembly). Named for their collective origins in Taegu and Kyongbuk (the spellings of Daegu and North Gyeongsang in the McCune–Reischauer romanization scheme), the TK group were highly influential in implementing Park's industrial policies during the Third Republic of Korea, channeling lucrative government contracts and adopting policies favorable to associates.

Notably, Kim sold Kumsung Textiles in 1962 to invest in cement manufacturing in Gangwon Province. The SsangYong Cement Industrial Company, Ltd. would soon become Kim's most important holding, and the plant in Donghae City would expand into the largest cement factory in the world. Kim made further investments in support of the cement concern, purchasing Samwha Paper to package the cement and founding Kumsung Shipping to deliver it, companies which later became SsangYong Paper Co. and SsangYong Shipping Co.

After the 1973 oil crisis, Kim negotiated a joint venture with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, to build an oil refinery in South Korea. The Korea Iran Petroleum Co., Ltd. was incorporated in 1976 and began construction of its refinery at Ulsan. The facility received its first oil tanker in 1980, and later that year the company changed its name to the Ssangyong Oil Refining Co., Ltd. The 1970 payment was transferred to UBS and there is no indication these funds ever reached South Korea. Kim's political career came to an end in 1971, when the TK group and Kim Jong pil, by then prime minister, joined the opposition New Democratic Party in a motion to dismiss Oh Chi sung, the minister of home affairs and a rival of Kim's. The TK group believed Park would not discipline them as they had backed the constitutional amendment that allowed Park to stand in the 1971 South Korean presidential election, but he summoned Kim and the others who had voted for the motion to the Blue House and had them beaten, leading to their resignation from the party and thus the National Assembly. According to some accounts, Gil Jae ho was forced to use a cane after the torture, and Kim Sung kon was further humiliated by having his mustache plucked out. After the October Restoration self coup, when Park assumed near dictatorial powers, the Heavy Chemical Industry Drive was adopted as national industrial policy, which heavily favored the chaebol, including SsangYong. In a partial rapprochement, Park appointed Kim president of the Korea Chamber of Commerce, but Kim died of a stroke in 1975 at the age of 62. The younger Kim continued SsangYong's aggressive expansion into new industries including construction, motor vehicles, and securities. Sales grew more than 18,000%, to ₩14.6 trillion in 1994, when he stepped down to attempt a political career, from ₩79.7 billion in 1974, the year before he took control. His younger brothers Kim Suk joon and Milton Kim were also deeply involved in the company's operations. Suk joon became president of Ssangyong E&C in 1983, chairman and CEO of SsangYong Motor in 1994, and group chairman in 1995. Youngest brother Milton began as an assistant manager at SsangYong Investment & Securities in 1990, and rose to CEO in 1995. Over the next five years, however, the unit proved to be a financial drag, making ₩505 billion in losses and accumulating ₩3.4 trillion in debt. Cash flow was so tight that production of its first sedan, the SsangYong Chairman, was delayed 20 days, while development of other products was frozen. Two hotels and the Yongpyong Resort, which SsangYong had acquired in 1983, were also put on the block. Even a share of the cement company was sold, in 2000, to Tokyo based Taiheiyo Cement. Since the aggressive restructuring, the Kim family has continued to run SsangYong E&C, even after its acquisition by the Korea Asset Management Company (KAMCO) in 2002 and subsequent sale to the Investment Corporation of Dubai in 2015. They however were forced to relinquish control of SsangYong Cement, with Kim Suk won stepping down in 2004.