These 5 South Korean Chaebols were the inspiration for the Korean drama Queen of Tears

 The South Korean drama Queen of Tears, played by Kim Ji-Won and Kim Soo-Hyun, is currently the favorite drama among Korean drama (drakor) lovers.

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Since broadcasting on March 9 2024, Queen of Tears has succeeded in capturing the attention of Korean drama fans. There are 16 episodes and are scheduled to end on Sunday (28/4/2024).

Queen of Tears highlights the chaotic household of a conglomerate family. And what is more complicated is family conflict regarding the relationship between parents and children, between siblings and in-laws.

Queen of Tears is also characterized by a character who has the ambition to take over the wealth of a conglomerate family, namely the owner of a large shopping center in South Korea.

The drama Queen of Tears can be said to be inspired by the depiction of conglomerate life in South Korea.

In South Korea, large industrial conglomerates run and controlled by a single owner or family are called Chaebol.

In South Korea there are several Chaebol in the real world. People from this social class have enormous wealth and influence in almost every aspect of life in South Korea. So the lives of Chaebols receive a lot of attention, starting from marriages, deaths, and legal problems experienced by Chaebols.

So who are the real world Chaebols in South Korea?

1. Koo Kwang-mo (LG Corporation)

Koo Kwang-mo is the chairman and CEO of LG. In the five years since taking office in 2018, he has been responsible for expanding LG's battery and electronics business as LG's new core business in the future. Koo became chairman of the conglomerate at the young age of 40 after the late Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr Koo Bon-moo, passed away in 2018.

Under Koo Kwang-mo's leadership, sales of seven LG Group issuers increased 37.7% from 138 trillion won in 2019 to 190 trillion won last year. Operating profit rose 77.4% from 4.6 trillion won to 8.22 trillion won. Its focus on the battery and electronics business helped LG Energy Solutions, which makes electric vehicle batteries, record annual sales of 25 trillion won and operating profit of 1 trillion won in 2022.

Conglomerate families are not free from problems. It is known that Koo is still dealing with an inheritance dispute. In September 2022, Koo, along with his mother Kim Young-sik and his two sisters, LG Welfare Foundation CEO Koo Yeon-kyung and Koo Yeon-soo, filed a lawsuit against the head of the Yongsan tax office in the Seoul Administrative Court to cancel the inheritance tax fine.

They admitted that they wanted their money back because the tax authorities imposed additional inheritance tax on several inherited items. They reportedly disagreed with tax authorities over the value of their 1.12% stake in unlisted LG CNS, which they inherited from late former chairman Koo Bon-moo. Koo Kwang-mo is the biological son of Koo Bon-moo's brother, Hee Sung Group Chairman Koo Bon-yeom, who was adopted by his former chairman.

2. Lee Jae-Yong (Samsung)

Lee Jae-Young or known as Jay Y Lee is a South Korean business magnate and Deputy Chairman of the Samsung Group, who serves as de facto leader. He is the eldest child and only son of Lee Kun-hee, Chairman of Samsung, and is widely considered the future heir to his father's position. He is referred to as the "Crown Prince of Samsung" by South Korean media, and is fluent in Korean, English, and Japanese.

Lee is ranked 2nd on the 2022 Forbes list of South Korea's richest people with assets of US$9.1 billion or around IDR 141.7 trillion (assuming an exchange rate of IDR 15,581 per US dollar).

Lee began working for Samsung in 1991. He began his career serving as Vice President of Strategic Planning and later as Chief Customer Officer, a management position created specifically for Lee.

In December 2009, Lee was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Samsung Electronics. Three years later, in December 2012 to be precise, Lee was appointed Deputy Chairman of Samsung Electronics. He is one of the major shareholders of Samsung's financial services subsidiary, owning 11% of Samsung SDS.

Unfortunately, five years later in February 2017 Lee was involved in a bribery scandal which resulted in South Korean prosecutors interrogating him for more than 22 hours.

He was charged for his role in a political and corporate scandal involving South Korea's then president, Park Geun-hye. The charges against Lee include bribery, embezzlement, hiding assets abroad and perjury.

3. Euisun Chung (Hyundai Motor Group)

Euisun Chung is a South Korean billionaire business magnate. He is the executive chairman and CEO of Hyundai Motor Group and the only son and heir apparent to Hyundai Motor Group honorary chairman Chung Mong-koo.

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung was named the recipient of the MotorTrend Person of the Year award, ranking number one on the 2023 MotorTrend Power List. Every year MotorTrend ranks the 50 most influential people in the global automotive industry.

In the past five years, Chung has shown progressive improvement. The first time he appeared on the Power List was in 2018 with 12th place, then rose to fifth in 2022, and is now in first place in 2023. MotorTrend named Chung 'Person of the Year' because he was deemed capable of "leading Hyundai Motor Group enters a new era".

Previously, Chung's visionary thinking had also received similar recognition, including being named 'Visionary of the Year' by Newsweek at the World's Greatest Auto Disrupters 2022 event and he was awarded the Issigonis Trophy at the 2021 Autocar Awards event.

4. Shin Dong-Bin (Lotte Corporation)

Shin Dong-bin is a Korean-Japanese businessman. In 2012, he was CEO of the South Korean conglomerate Lotte Corporation and the Japanese Lotte Chiba Marines baseball team. He is the second son of Shin Kyuk-ho (Takeo Shigemitsu), the founder and first CEO of Lotte and his Japanese wife.

Shin is the younger brother of Hiroyuki Shigemitsu (Korean name Shin Dong-ju), CEO of Lotte Group Japan. He graduated from Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo with a B.A. in economics in 1977 and from Columbia University with an MBA.

It is known that Shin became the highest paid CEO in Korea during the first half of 2023. According to regulatory disclosures from Korea's leading conglomerate, Shin received a total of 11.25 billion won (US$8.4 million) from seven Lotte companies including Lotte Corporation, the parent company, Lotte Chemical, Lotte Shopping, and Lotte Chilsung Beverage from January to June.

This figure is about 1 billion won higher than the same period last year.

5. Chey Tae-won (SK Group)

Chet Tae-won is the chairman of SK Group, Korea's second-largest conglomerate primarily engaged in energy, chemicals, telecommunications, semiconductors and biopharmaceutical businesses.

SK Group has 186 subsidiaries including SK Telecom, SK Hynix, and SK Innovation through SK Inc.(parent company). Chey is best known for the SK Hynix group merger deal, which eventually became the world's fourth-largest chipmaker after Samsung Electronics, Intel and TSMC. As of June 2021, he is the 14th richest person in South Korea with an estimated net worth of US$3.6 billion. Most of his wealth comes from SK Inc., the parent company of SK Group.

Chey has also served as Chairman of the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) since March 2021 and represents the Korean business community.

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