By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
The family feud at the Lotte Group between its Chairman Shin Kyuk-ho and his siblings has been rekindled following the group's advancement into the tourism industry.
The nation's fifth largest conglomerate established Lotte JTB last month, a travel joint venture with Japan's largest tourism group Japan Tourism Bureau (JTB), despite the travel business of Lotte Tour led by Shin's brother-in-law Kim Ki-byung.
Lotte Tour is not an affiliate of Lotte Group, but it has been using the name of ``Lotte'' and its symbol since 1973 because the company has been run by Kim, the husband of Shin Jeong-hee who is Shin's sister and also the boss of Dongwha Duty Free Shop.
However, as the group decided to launch its tourism business, it demanded Lotte Tour forfeit both the name and symbol. Lotte Tour rejected the demand and the group proceeded to file a suit against Lotte Tour in June to exclusively retain the right to the trademark three ``L'' symbol.
It is not the first time for Lotte chairman and founder Shin, 85, to be involved in legal suits against family members _ he has endured legal battles with all his siblings who have run Lotte-related businesses.
Most of Shin's siblings are running businesses _ Shin Choon-ho runs food manufacturer Nongshim, and Shin Joon-ho is chairman of Lotte Milk.
There have been domestic conflicts regarding property distribution and business fields.
When Lotte Shopping took over Woori Home Shopping, Taekwang Industrial, which was the main shareholder of Woori, filed a suit against Lotte. Taekwang Chairman Lee Ho-jin is the son-in-law of Shin's brother Shin Sun-ho, head of Japanese noodle maker Sansas.
The biggest lawsuit was in 1996 between Shin and Shin Joon-ho, then vice chairman of the group, over land which had been registered in the latter's name.
Shin filed a suit against Shin Joon-ho to take ownership of 1.2 million square meters of land nationwide, including the 11,880 square meters Lotte Confectionary site in Yangpyeong-dong, Seoul. Shin won the suit.
After the case, Shin Joon-ho deserted Shin, as have other brothers in the past _ the late Shin Cheol-ho, who died in 1999 shunned his eldest brother after a legal battle in 1966.
Those disputes have resulted from Shin's using the brothers' names in the early stages of his business in Korea after he reaped profits from businesses in Japan.
Before Korea and Japan re-established diplomatic ties in 1965, Japanese companies could not invest in Korea. Shin then started his business and bought land here under his brothers' names, triggering the longstanding family feud.