Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction chairman Park Yong-sung said Tuesday that he would resign from all posts amid controversy over his use of profanity against university professors.
His posts include the chairmanship of the board of Chung-Ang University in Seoul and honorary president of the Korean Olympic Committee.
Park’s resignation came after he came under fire for threatening university professors who opposed forthcoming school restructuring measures.
“Though I have been making various efforts to improve CAU, I have caused trouble along the way. I express my deepest regrets to everyone at the university,” Park said in a statement released Tuesday.
Park had prompted an uproar from university professors after he threatened to fire those opposing the board’s plans to alter the university’s admission process through vulgar remarks made in an email sent out to the president of CAU and some 20 professors at the university.
The outgoing Doosan Heavy chairman had written, “It isn’t good manners to not strike ones neck when one has asked for it” and that he “would strike in the most bloody and painful way possible,” vowing to use his “authority over faculty appointment to take revenge” on those opposing the board’s plans.
Chung-Ang University is scheduled to convene an emergency board of directors meeting soon to discuss Park’s profanity.
The prosecution plans to summon Park for his ties to former CAU president Park Bum-hoon, who has been under investigation for allegedly abusing his power to grant special privileges to the university while he worked as a senior secretary for education under the former President Lee Myung-bak.
