'Curse of skyscraper'

By Park Yoon-bae

Deputy managing editor

I went to the Han River Park in Jamsil, southeastern Seoul, on Sunday night. It was nice to breathe cool, fresh air in the early autumn night two weeks before the Chuseok holiday.

What caught my eye was the near-completed Lotte World Tower, which dwarfs all other high-rise apartments and buildings in the area. If completed next year, it will be 555 meters high, with 123 floors ― the tallest in Korea.

The skyscraper seemed to sport its towering structure with lights glittering from its windows over the night sky. It has already become a landmark in Seoul.

People cannot but feel the power of Lotte Group, the country’s fifth-largest conglomerate, whose businesses range from hotels, department stores and duty-free shops to food, confectionery, liquor, construction and petrochemicals.

Needless to say, Lotte deserves credit for changing the cityscape of the capital just as it has redrawn the nation’s business and industrial landscape.

But fascination about the mega-complex was soon overlapped with the shameful images of Lotte founder Shin Kyuk-ho’s two sons ― Dong-joo and Dong-bin ― who got into a feud over managerial control of the group in July.

The feud was over by mid-August, with Shin’s second son, Dong-bin, clinching victory over his elder brother. However, it has left a bad aftertaste for many Koreans who have been fed up with the foul play of other business tycoons and their offspring.

If it had not been for the succession dispute, most people may not have seen the true picture of the family-run Lotte and its executives who lack transparency and accountability.

The Lotte episode shows how opaque and outdated the group’s governance structure has been. Shin, a Korean-Japanese businessman, and his family have controlled more than 70 affiliates with only a small stake. They have controlled most Korean subsidiaries, including Lotte Hotel and Lotte Department Store, through the Japan-based Lotte Holdings.

Frankly speaking, I have begun to look at the Lotte World Tower differently since the family feud erupted. The reason is that some politicians and critics are making allegations that the group “lobbied” frantically to obtain approval for the unprecedented skyscraper project in 2009.

Lotte began to push for the project after President Kim Young-sam was inaugurated in 1993. However, the tower plan was put on hold for almost 14 years as the government refused to give permission citing risks such a super-tall building may pose to national defense and security.

But the previous Lee Myung-bak administration was so quick in giving a go-ahead to the project that opposition lawmakers and civic activists raised suspicions that there might have been shady connections between the ruling elite and Lotte’s management.

In this context, it is not easy to deny categorically that the business-friendly, conservative government provided undue business favors to the conglomerate at the sacrifice of public safety and national interest.

Some speculate that the group lobbied for the project by taking advantage of personal ties between former President Lee and then Lotte Hotel CEO Chang Kyung-chak ― both of whom are alumni of Korea University.

A critic claimed that Lee must have decided to allow Lotte to build the tower even before his inauguration, pointing out that he used the hotel’s royal suite room as his office during the transition period.

Another detractor came up with allegations that the Lee regime sacked then Air Force Chief of Staff Kim Eun-ki in October 2008 as he tenaciously opposed the construction of Lotte World Tower because it was too close to the flight approach to Seoul Airport, a military base five kilometers south of the building.

The dismissal of Kim apparently applied pressure on the Air Force to drop its objection to the Lotte project, paving the way for approval of it. Finally, the Air Force had to change the course of the runway by 3 degrees eastward to avoid potential risks of military aircraft hitting the tower.

It is not too much to say that the military was forced to compromise national defense and security in favor of Lotte’s business interests.

Officials of the pro-chaebol Lee government may defend its action by saying that the approval of the tower project was necessary to push for deregulation, promote investment and create jobs. But they have yet to answer the question: Was the approval only for Lotte?

The controversy over the skyscraper may add to the list of major corruption and power-abuse scandals surrounding the refurbishment of the four rivers, the exploration of overseas energy resources and the procurement of weapons under Lee’s rule.

It is high time to shed light on the dubious tower project to break corrupt ties between political power and conglomerates. If we fail to do so, not only Lotte but also the nation may face the “curse of the skyscraper.”