Samsung heir in South Korea’s delegation to North

SEOUL: The heir to the Samsung empire and the leaders of several other South Korean conglomerates will go to Pyongyang this week for an inter-Korean summit, Seoul announced yesterday.

Samsung’s Lee Jae-yong and the heads of the SK and LG groups will all be part of President Moon Jae-in’s delegation as he heads for a meeting with the North’s leader Kim Jong Un, Moon’s office said.

The vice-president of Hyundai Motor Group – whose founder was a refugee from the North – will also be among the entourage.

Moon, a dove who favours dialogue with the North to nudge it toward denuclearisation, has advocated closer economic ties across the border, despite multiple sanctions on the North over its atomic weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

He is set to fly to the North’s capital tomorrow for a three- day summit with Kim – his third meeting this year with the young ruler of the isolated country.

The delegation of about 200 includes Seoul’s top officials including its spy chief, foreign minister and defence chief as well as prominent figures in the economy, religion, culture and sports, Moon’s office said.

Lee is the de facto leader of the Samsung group, by far the South’s biggest conglomerate, which includes Samsung Electronics – the world’s largest maker of smartphones as well as memory chips. —AFP