SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Woo-choong, whose catchphrase of “To the world, to the future!” inspired legions of young South Korean entrepreneurs after the devastation of the Korean War but whose mad-rush corporate expansion ended in the biggest bankruptcy in the country’s history, died on Monday night in Suwon, south of Seoul. He was 82.

His death, at Ajou University Hospital, was caused by pneumonia, his family and doctors said.

Although Mr. Kim lived out of public view after the disintegration of Daewoo in 1999, he remained a business legend in South Korea. His rise symbolized the country’s emergence as an economic powerhouse from the ashes of war. Conversely, Daewoo’s collapse in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis exposed the country’s structural flaws and signaled that its period of breakneck growth was over.

Mr. Kim built Daewoo from a one-room textile exporter with a five-person staff in 1967 into South Korea’s second largest “chaebol,” or business conglomerate. By the time it collapsed under the weight of $80 billion in debt, Daewoo employed 300,000 workers, generated $67 billion in sales and flooded world markets with cheap cars, ships, refrigerators, garments and television sets.

The brand name Daewoo has largely disappeared in South Korea. But dozens of executives who started their careers under Mr. Kim and still call themselves “Daewoo men” lead South Korean companies today. Thousands of former Daewoo employees, business tycoons and politicians paid tribute on Tuesday and Wednesday at a funeral altar set up at the hospital.