Founder of South Korea’s Lotte Business Dynasty Dies at 97

  • Shin built chewing-gum maker into country’s largest retailer
  • Lotte family has been probed by prosecutors for corruption
Shin Kyuk-ho in 2017.Photographer: Jean Chung/Bloomberg
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Shin Kyuk-ho, a wartime migrant to Japan who returned home to build a little-known chewing-gum maker into Lotte Group, South Korea’s biggest retailer, has died. He was 97.

Shin had been hospitalized in Seoul to get medical treatment for various age-related symptoms and passed away Sunday at 4:29 p.m., Lotte Group said in a statement.