Yang Seung-dong

Yang Seung-dong (, born 15 July 1961) is a South Korean journalist. He served as the 23rd and 24th President of the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS).

Career Born in Gongju, Yang was educated at Kimin Secondary School and Daejeon High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science and international relations,

Yang was hired to KBS as a producer of the Issue and Culture Department in 1989, and directed TV programmes such as KBS Special, Good Insight, History Special, In Depth 60 Minutes and so on.

In 2008, Yang was one of the co-presidents of the KBS Employees Action to Defend Public Broadcasting (shortly Employees Action), an organisation fighting against the media control of the President of the Republic, Lee Myung-bak. The organisation also aimed to protect the incumbent KBS President Chung Yeon-joo from dismissal. After Lee Byung-soon replaced Chung, Yang was sacked from KBS, but filed an appeal so that the punishment was eased to 4-month suspension. He was assigned to the Non-production Department for 2 years.

On 31 October 2018, Yang was re-elected for his office, after passing an interview of KBS board of directors and citizens' advisories.

Controversies Sewol tragedy karaoke incident On 30 March 2018, during the parliamentary hearing session, a Liberty Korea MP Park Dae-chool said that he received a report, which Yang was at a karaoke in Haeundae on 16 April 2014, the day of the MV Sewol tragedy. Yang at first denied it, but soon Park revealed a statement describing that Yang purchased at a karaoke via KBS credit card on the day of the tragedy.

Controversies were provoked when KBS decided to end Concert 7080 (2004–2018) but did not explain the actual reason. The newspaper also criticised that the new programmes i.e. Tonight Kim Je-dong and Your Red Cheek have low ratings than the old ones. The KBS Public Trade Union filed a lawsuit against Yang and the in charges under the breach of the National Security Act. Na Kyung-won, the Liberty Korea parliamentary leader, urged its all MPs to not appear on the programme.

Filmography KBS Special Good Insight History Special In Depth 60 Minutes Man History World Report