Kim Rahn is the managing editor of The Korea Times. Since joining the company in 2003, she has covered various beats including the presidential office, Seoul city government, the Bank of Korea and the tourism industry. In 2014, she won the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award for her coverage of the ordeals of migrant women in Korea.
Ex-Shindongbang head dies at 73
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Shin Myung-soo
By Kim Rahn
By Kim Rahn
Shin Myung-soo, former chairman of Shindongbang Group, died of colon cancer on Saturday, his family said. He was 73.
He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.
He was the first son of Shin Deok-kyun, founder of the group, which introduced soybean oil products in the 1960s, including Haepyo cooking oil.
Shin graduated from Seoul National University and obtained his master’s degree at Columbia University in the U.S.
Starting work at Shindongbang in 1967, Shin became president in 1974 and chairman in 1989, making the group one of the nation’s leading food-processing companies.
Under Shin, the group expanded by setting up a brokerage and distribution branches. He also tried to take over department store operator Midopa in 1997, but failed.
The failure and the following Asian financial crisis drove Shindongbang into a creditor-led recovery program. The group sold its starch and sugar businesses to CJ and its cooking oil business to Sajo Group.
Shin was chief of the Korean association of soybean processing companies, vice chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries, and vice chairman of the Korea Management Association.
Shin’s daughter married former President Roh Tae-woo’s only son in 1990, but they divorced last year.
In June 2012, Roh claimed he had entrusted Shin to look after 23 billion won of his slush funds, but that Shin had used the money for himself.
Roh asked the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office to investigate Shin. Last September, Shin paid 8 billion won to settle Roh’s overdue fines owed on his conviction for treason, mutiny and corruption in August 1996, with fellow former President Chun Doo-hwan.