Samsung founder's eldest son dies

By Park Si-soo

The late Lee Maeng-hee

Lee Maeng-hee, the eldest son of Samsung Group founder Lee Byung-chull and an elder brother of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, has died from lung cancer at a hospital in Beijing, China, Friday. He was 84.

The deceased is the father of CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun, who himself is currently hospitalized in Seoul after complications following his kidney transplant.

“Lee Maeng-hee died at 9:39 a.m. at a hospital in Beijing,” a CJ spokesman said.

Lee underwent lung cancer surgery in Japan in 2012, but the cancer recurred the following year and spread to other parts of his body. He had received radiation treatment in Japan and China and was recuperating in Beijing at the time of his death.

It has yet to be announced when and where his memorial service will be held. Whether his ailing son will attend the service has not yet been decided either. Jay-hyun’s body rejected his new kidney after transplant surgery in 2013. He was given a three-year prison sentence for embezzlement and other charges in 2013, but his imprisonment was suspended due to his illness, and his mobility is limited to Seoul National University Hospital where he is being treated.

Travelling outside the hospital requires special approval from the Ministry of Justice.

Maeng-hee was born in 1931 in Uiryeong, South Gyeongsang Province, and studied in Japan and the United States. He served in various top positions at Samsung affiliates, but his ambition for Samsung’s top job was thwarted in 1976 when his father handpicked his third son, Kun-hee, as his successor. Maeng-hee has since remained an “outcast” in the Samsung owner family.

He drew media attention in 2012 by filing a lawsuit against his younger brother Kun-hee, demanding a significant portion of the inheritance he gained from his father. But the court’s ruling was not favorable to Maeng-hee. He dropped the lawsuit in 2014.

He is survived by his wife ― Sohn Bok-nam, 82, an advisor of CJ Group ― and three children ― Jay-hyun, CJ chairman; Mie-kyung, CJ vice chairwoman; and Jae-hwan, CEO of JS Communications, an ad company.