Samsung heir apologizes over management, union busting
SEOUL, South Korea, — Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong on Wednesday expressed remorse but did not admit to wrongdoing over his alleged involvement in a 2016 corruption scandal that spurred massive street protests and sent South Korea’s then-president to prison.
The vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest producer of computer chips and smartphones, promised to end heredity transfers of control of
South Korea’s largest business group, promising not to pass the management rights he inherited from his father to his children.
Lee also said Samsung would stop suppressing employee attempts to organize unions.
Lee’s news conference followed a review by a Samsung committee of external experts, led by former South Korean Supreme Court justice Kim Ji-hyung, of Samsung’s corporate behaviour. It concluded he should apologize over the graft allegations and address problems with the company’s labour policies.
“Samsung’s technologies and products are continuously praised as top-rate, but people’s views on Samsung remain critical. All this is because of our shortcomings,” Lee said at a Samsung Electronics office in Seoul.
Lee said the company “at times” had failed to comply with laws and ethics. After bowing in apology, Lee vowed to ensure “there would no longer be any controversy over the issue of management succession.” He left without taking questions.
Lee stepped into his leadership role after his father, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, fell ill in May 2014.
He is being tried on charges that he bribed former president Park Geun-hye and her confidant while seeking government support for his control over Samsung.
The scandal ignited massive street protests that toppled the presidency of Park. She was removed from office in 2017 and is serving a decades-long term in prison.