Hanwha chief's son faces criminal prosecution over assault

Kim Dong-seon, far right, celebrates winning his individual silver medal in equestrian at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. He is with his father Kim Seung-youn, left, shairman of Hanwha Group, at the Dream Park Equestrian Venue on Sep. 23, 2014. / Korea Times file

By Kim Bo-eun, Ko Dong-hwan

The Korean Bar Association (KBA) filed a complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, Tuesday, against Kim Dong-seon, the third son of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn, for assaulting lawyers at a dinner party.

“We have begun an investigation into the case involving Kim,” the association said. “We will send a document to Hanwha Group regarding the details of the case.”

The KBA said it would have the lawyers who were assaulted file a compensation suit against Kim.

“This case is a typical case of chaebol taking advantage of their status,” the KBA said. “Insulting lawyers and treating them disrespectfully and assaulting them just because they were hired, damages the dignity and esteem of the profession of lawyers.”

In September, Dong-seon joined a binge at a bar in Jongno-gu, Seoul, where new recruits to major South Korean law firm KIM & CHANG were gathered. He was a friend of one of the lawyers.

About an hour later, Dong-seon, 28, drunk, started irritating the others. He ordered the lawyers, mostly older than him, to “straighten their backs” to show respect and address him as “the big shareholder (of the law firm).”

The three-time Asian Games gold medalist in equestrian tried to put the lawyers down by asking what their parents did for a living. The rookie barristers, who knew Hanwha was their firm’s major client, didn’t want to get involved and wanted to leave. Besides, he was a colleague of Chung Yoo-ra ― the daughter of former President Park Geun-hye’s secret adviser, Choi Soon-sil ― with whom he won gold at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.

But Dong-seon slapped one of the lawyers and grabbed a female lawyer’s hair. The latter was reportedly a daughter of the former managing editor of major South Korean daily Maeil Business Newspaper. The paper exclusively exposed Kim’s behavior Monday night.

Dong-seon next day apologized to the victims but they refused to accept. They said they didn’t report him to police because they were afraid that accusing him might offend Hanwha and cause their firm to lose the conglomerate’s business.

Kim Dong-sun, right, with his lawyer at Gangnam Police Station in Seoul, Jan. 5, 2017. / Yonhap

The incident’s gravity angered South Korean lawyer groups. The Korean Bar Association launched an investigation Tuesday, while the Seoul Bar Association and the Korean Women Lawyers Association, where the female victim is registered, said the matter will not go unnoticed.

The September mayhem was the latest example revealed of Hanwha scions using their wealthy background to abuse people of lower social standing. This is known in South Korea as “gap-jil.”

Gap-jil by Dong-seon, a graduate of Dartmouth College in the U.S. and now working at Hanwha Engineering and Construction, goes back to 2010. At an upscale Seoul hotel bar, he sexually harassed a female employee, assaulted two security staff and a broke window by throwing a microphone at it while drunk. The havoc, which ended up injuring the bar’s three employees, led him to be indicted, but prosecutors dropped the case.

In January this year, Dong-seon assaulted two employees of a whisky bar in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, and threw food in the air, again while drunk. He tore up the seat of a police car while being taken in for questioning. He was also accused of rowdy behavior during the interrogation. Seoul Central District Court sentenced him to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, and 80 hours of community service.

Dong-seon’s actions, which caused the public to cast doubt on the children of higher-ups in South Korean conglomerates, are shared by his brother, Dong-won, Seung-yeon’s second son.

Kim Dong-won, head of fintech and the Innovation Center of Hanwha Life, participated in the 2016 BOAO Forum for Asia on Hainan Island, China, on March 22. / Courtesy of BOAO Forum for Asia

In a highly publicized incident in 2007, the elder brother, 32, clashed with an employee of a karaoke bar in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul, after they made unintentional shoulder contact. Dong-won tumbled down the stairs during the altercation and sustained a cut around his eye that required 11 stitches.

The Hanwha chairman, after hearing of the incident, went to the bar with a group of gangsters. Taking the employees responsible for Dong-won’s injury to a construction site, the chairman bashed them with an iron pipe. On charges for this apparent “revenge attack,” the chairman received a jail term suspended for three years and 300 hours of community service.

Dong-won, a Yale University graduate who now works at Hanwha Life Insurance, was fined 7 million won ($6,400) for fleeing the scene of a car crash in 2011. In 2014, he received a jail term suspended for two years and was ordered to attend drug treatment sessions after smoking cannabis, smuggled by U.S. Forces Korea, four times.

“This series of incidents prove that at the top of this capitalism hierarchy is a group of ‘chaebol’ (international South Korean conglomerates run by family members) with capital authority,” sociology Professor Lee Joo-hee from Ewha Womans University said.