Hanwha Chairman Kim Seung-young Will Return Soon

Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn said that he “only found out about the prosecution’s foreign travel ban after leaving the country,” denying the allegations of his departure being an evasive overseas flight. He also added that he would reschedule his plans to come back to Korea if his attendance is required in solving the case.

The prosecution imposed a foreign travel ban on Kim on January 2 regarding the inspection of the presidential election slush fund case. However, Kim left the country one day before the ban, in order to attend his training program held at Stanford University.

Kim said, “The misunderstanding about the departure was purely accidental,” and that he is “genuinely sorry for the confusion he had caused.” According to Kim, he had applied for a training session at Stanford last October and had been accepted to the program on December 18.

Do-Young Kim nirvana1@donga.com