Top Conglomerates from South Korea Samsung, Hyundai, SK, and LG are rejoining a contentious business lobby that was tarnished by an influence-peddling scandal in the middle of the 2010s under then-President Park Geun-hye.
Samsung Electronics, the company's flagship division, made the decision to re-join the group on Friday during a board meeting. Hyundai Motor will be back, along with divisions of SK and LG.
In 2016, the Federation of Korean Industries came under scrutiny after it was discovered that it had helped collect bribes for Park. Later, Park was ousted from office after being impeached, and key executives from Samsung and Lotte were jailed for bribery.
In response to the controversy, LG quit the organization in December 2016. Samsung, Hyundai, and SK did the same in 2017. Their departure cut the lobby's financing in half, practically.
The lobby chose to combine with a connected think tank on Tuesday. In an effort to pay homage to its founding name from 1961, the group also chose to alter its Korean name back to that name.
Ryu Jin, chairman of defense contractor Poongsan Group, who was chosen to lead the lobby that day, stated, "We want to correct our dark past and consider regaining the public's trust a top priority."
"We will create a framework to prevent a similar scandal from happening ever again," he stated.
