Chairman of Samsung gains and empire but loses a daughter

I will admit my ineptitude and lack of proficiency in Korean politics, economics, and popular players in the limelight. Unfortunately, this is especially true when pertaining to the less than recent news of the suicide Lee Yoon-hyung, the 26-year-old daughter of Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, who was residing in New York while attending the university at the time. November 18, 2005 her death was thought to be the cause of a tragic car accident, however, later the Yonhap News Agency confirmed her death through hanging. Yet, after learning about the actual cause of death of this heiress, company officials refrained from changing previous thoughts out of respect for the family.

According to the staff reporter Chung Ah-young at the Korean Times, “unlike the chairman’s other children, who tend to keep a low profile, Lee’s third daughter attracted public attention on several occasions, such as when she opened a personal Web page in 2003.”

Therefore, my jaw dropped subconsciously at my amazement of an heiress to a family fortune taking her own life. She owned 8.37 percent of Samsung Everland, the de facto holding company of Korea’s largest conglomerate. Additionally, her father Chairman Lee Kun-hee is the epitome of worldly cultured. Lee Kun-hee is the chairman of Samsung Group, has an Economics degree from Waseda University in Tokyo as well as an MBA from George Washington University in the United States, and speaks Korean, English, and Japanese. In 1996, Lee became a member of the International Olympic Committee. With an estimated net worth of $3.4 billion, he and his family rank among the Forbes richest people in the world.

Although his rich and famous student enjoys the perks of the limelight, Chung explained that she suffered from depression possibly stemming from attending a foreign school doubled with the public outcry over the recent allegations of Samsung’s corruption and financial irregularities. However, Lee’s American boyfriend Shin Soo-bin noticed her suffering from a severe depression during her stay in the U.S. after her marriage plan was opposed by her parents. They broke up before she left for the U.S this September.

Are social pressures this severe in Korea that a student escapes their parent’s overbearing nature through studying abroad or was her case unusual and extraordinary? I comprehend the social pressures of perfection especially in studies in Japan and, hence, the suicidal rate, however her situation appears atypical to me. Since I am ignorant of the pressures placed upon Koreans by society, can someone please explain this bizarre situation to me?

(EB)


Samsung Chairman’s Daughter Commits Suicide


By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter

The youngest daughter of Lee Kun-hee, chairman of South Korea’s largest conglomerate the Samsung Group, committed suicide and did not die in a car accident as originally reported, a source has said.

The Yonhap News Agency quoted the source as saying that the cause of Yoon-hyung’s death was confirmed to be suicide.

Lee, 26, was found dead hanging in her apartment near New York University where she was studying. It was not immediately known whether she left a suicide note.

The New York Times reported Saturday that her body was found by her boyfriend Shin Soo-bin and his friend about 3 a.m. last Saturday, hanging by an electrical cord attached to the door of her Manhattan apartment.

Yim Jun-seok, a Samsung spokesman in Seoul, confirmed that the death was a suicide and not the result of a traffic accident, the newspaper reported.

Yim told the newspaper that the company did not issue any official statement on her death, because the company’s officials believe her death to be a personal matter and did not want to intrude on the family’s grieving.

On Monday, officials of Samsung Electronics Co., told the press that she had been ``pronounced medically dead’’ from a car accident in New York City.

According to the source, she might have suffered from depression during her stay in the U.S. and public outcry over the recent allegations of Samsung’s corruption and financial irregularities.

Unlike the chairman’s other children, who tend to keep a low profile, Lee’s third daughter attracted public attention on several occasions, such as when she opened a personal Web page in 2003.

But she suffered from a severe depression during her stay in the U.S. after her marriage plan with a Korean boyfriend was opposed by her parents, Yonhap reported quoting the source. They broke up before she left for the U.S in September.

Samsung Chairman Lee has been staying in the U.S. since late September for medical examinations, but he and his wife did not attend the funeral attended by only a few immediate family members.

In Korea, mourning for the late Lee was set up inside Won Buddhism’s local branch in Hyehwa-dong, central Seoul and several of Lee’s family members have visited the place, the source said.

The late Lee had graduated from Ewha Womans University in Seoul and had begun studying at New York University this year.

She owned 8.37 percent of Samsung Everland, the de facto holding company of Korea’s largest conglomerate.