By Kim Sung-jin
Staff Reporter



Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee is expected to extend his stay in the U.S., a move that is speculated to be tied to the ongoing investigation into the group’s secret funding in the 1997 presidential election. /Korea Times File

Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee is forecast to extend his sojourn in the United States.
Samsung Group officials hinted at the possibility that chairman Lee plans to take a tour to Samsung’s U.S. affiliates after he receives the results of his medical checkup in Texas.

The Houston, Texas-based MD Anderson Cancer Center reportedly plans to deliver the results this week. Lee was treated for lung cancer at the MD Anderson in early 2000.

``I heard that MD Anderson will have the results of chairman Lee’s medical overhaul sometime this week. As far as I am aware, Lee will carry on with his business schedule in the U.S. after receiving the results of his medical checkup,’’ said a Samsung Group official on condition of anonymity.

He added that the Samsung Group is reviewing whether or not to disclose the results on Lee’s health.

However, the Samsung Group’s public relations office declined to comment on Lee’s sojourn in the U.S., adding that the conglomerate has no current knowledge about its chairman’s health condition and when Lee will return to Seoul.

Local media speculate that Lee must not be in such a bad shape as to receive treatment in the MD Anderson, saying that Lee should have checked into the hospital rather than staying in a nearby hotel if his health condition was so critical.

In Korea, speculation has been brewing that Lee, who secretly left for Texas for a comprehensive medical examination on Sept. 4 upon a recommendation by the Seoul-based Samsung Medical Center, fled to the U.S. to avert a summon proposed by policymakers and one possibly by the prosecution.

A National Assembly inspection committee plans to have Lee testify before an inspection slated for today planned by the legislature’s Finance and Economy Committee.

The prosecution has made progress with its probe into the so-called ``X-file scandal,’’ which refers to Samsung Group’s illegal political donations to presidential candidates prior to the 1997 election revealed from recent wiretapped voice records by the national intelligence agency.

Civic activist groups, including People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, presume that chairman Lee intentionally escaped the country to avoid interrogation by the prosecution as the investigation’s focus has been shifted to finding the mastermind behind the irregularity.

The prosecution has also launched an investigation into whether Samsung Group exercised its influence on Kia Motors to push the company into the verge of bankruptcy by directing its financial affiliates to withdraw a 500 billion won loan in an attempt to acquire the automaker back in 1997.

sjkim@koreatimes.co.kr