Hyosung's late chairman Cho Suck-rai honored for a lifetime of Korea-US bridge-building

Hyosung Group announced Monday that its late honorary chairman, Cho Suck-rai, received the 24th Korea-US Friendship Award after his death, recognizing his role in strengthening the South Korean-US alliance. The Korea-America Association, which has handed out the award every year since 2002, gives it to people who have made major contributions to bilateral friendship and cooperation.

Cho's resume reads like a map of the two countries' economic ties. He served as international president of the Pacific Basin Economic Council in 2002 and led major business cooperation organizations both at home and abroad. He was also among the first South Korean business leaders to push for a free trade agreement with the United States, work that helped lay the groundwork for the eventual bilateral trade pact.

From his post as a senior leader of the Korea-US Business Council, Cho helped secure South Korea's inclusion in the US Visa Waiver Program in 2008, a change that let South Koreans travel to the US without a visa for short stays.

At a ceremony in Seoul last week, Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Hyun-joon accepted the award on his late father's behalf. He pledged to keep working to strengthen ties between the two countries, extending a legacy his father built over decades in the business community.