[Shin Kyuk-ho Passes Away] Dies at Age 99 Due to Chronic Illness (Update)

Honorary Chairman Shin Kyuk-ho of Lotte Group passed away at around 4:30 PM on the 19th. He was 99 years old. (Photo by Lotte Group)

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seung-jin] Shin Kyuk-ho, the honorary chairman and founder of Lotte Group, passed away at around 4:30 PM on the 19th. He was 99 years old. Lotte Group announced on the 19th that Chairman Shin passed away due to an illness. Chairman Shin's condition rapidly worsened on the night of the 18th, and he was admitted to the intensive care unit at Asan Medical Center in Seoul. Shin Dong-bin, Lotte Chairman who was on a business trip in Japan, also hurriedly returned to Korea.

Lotte Group stated, "The night before, Chairman Shin's condition deteriorated rapidly, and in preparation for any emergency, key executives of the group gathered at the hospital."

Born in 1922 and aged 99 this year, Chairman Shin had been hospitalized repeatedly for treatment due to deteriorating health since November and December of last year. In October of last year, he was sentenced to three years in prison by the Supreme Court on charges including management corruption, but he applied for a suspension of sentence execution in the same month citing dementia and other health issues. The prosecution accepted this, and he mainly lived at Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul.

Chairman Shin started a small food business while studying in Japan during the Japanese colonial period and built a large corporation spanning food, distribution, tourism, and petrochemicals in both Korea and Japan. Especially after succeeding as an entrepreneur in Japan and with the normalization of diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan opening the door for investment in Korea, he founded or acquired companies such as Lotte Confectionery in 1967, Hotel Lotte, Lotte Shopping, and Honam Petrochemical, making Lotte Group the 5th largest conglomerate in Korea.