SK chairman's daughter hurt while skiing

Chey Min-jeong

Navy officer Chey Min-jeong, 24, the second daughter of SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, sustained a knee injury while skiing during the Lunar New Year holiday last week, according to the Navy.

“Ensign Chey suffered an injury after running into a civilian. And she was taken to a Navy hospital for a ligament tear in her left knee,” a Navy officer said Tuesday. He added Chey was on leave.

The officer said Chey is having muscle-strengthening treatment and rehabilitation at the hospital in the naval port city of Jinhae, Southern Gyeongsang Province.

He said Chey will aboard a naval ship for a training mission next week as scheduled because her injury is not serious enough to cancel the training.

She drew attention from the public last year when she applied for the Navy’s Officer Candidate School (OCS) last August. It is still rare for a daughter of a business tycoon to serve the military in Korea. She is also a granddaughter of former President Roh Tae-woo.

Chey graduated from Peking University in China. She supported herself during her university days by working part-time jobs at private academies and restaurants.

She was commissioned as an ensign on Dec. 1 after completing the 10-week officer training course. Ensign is equivalent to the Army's second lieutenant.

Since then she has been undergoing a training program for those preparing for their assignment for naval ships at the Naval Education & Training Command in Jinhae.

She will be assigned to the Navy’s 4,400-ton destroyer Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin from April 6 and will serve as the vessel’s operations officer.