Jang Seong-hwan, 92-year-old South Korean businessman, and his wife decided to donate a real estate worth 20 billion won to the Korea Advanced Institute of Technology, the institution said Sunday.

KAIST held a ceremony to mark Jang’s donation at a hotel in Seoul on Saturday, it said.

The donation includes a six-floor building with two basement floors on a landmass of 580 square meters in Nonhyun-dong, southern Seoul.

Jang is a son of a North Korean family, who crossed the border to the South at age 18. He built his own company that manufacturers cosmetics containers and has established Samsung Brush in China, a company that makes various kinds of cosmetics brushes.

“I chose KAIST, because it would be the most meaningful if my donation becomes an investment for the country’s future,” Jang said.

“I respect and express gratitude for the Jangs’ decision to donate the valuable asset that the two had raised for their lifetime,” said KAIST President Lee Kwang-hyung. “KAIST will utilize the fund to raise world-class talent to live up to the donators.”

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)