LG Group officially announced its membership withdrawal from the Federation of Korean Industries(FKI), the biggest business lobby group in Korea.
It is the first official move from a conglomerate, since some heads of the summoned conglomerates expressed their intention to leave the FKI at the parliamentary hearing of the special investigation committee on December 6 on the alleged corruption and influence-peddling in state affairs by Choi Soon-sil, President Park Geun-hye's confidante and her aides.
LG Group on December 27 issued a press release saying that the group will withdraw its membership from the FKI by the end of this year and will not pay membership fees from next year.
Some analysts say that the membership withdrawal of LG Group would prompt other conglomerates to follow suit which will eventually lead to the disbandment of the organization. Heads of Samsung Group and SK Group promised to leave the FKI at the parliamentary hearing on December 6.
Early this year, FKI was embroiled in controversy when it was found that it had financially supported the activities of an extreme right wing organization. In recent, the facts were confirmed that FKI played the role in delivering the donations from the conglomerates to the controversial Mir and K-Sports foundations controlled by Choi Soon-sil.
reported by Bae Hye-jeong
translated by Kim Sung-jin