⁍ Lee Kun-hee built Samsung Electronics into a global powerhouse in smartphones, semiconductors and televisions.

---

⁍ Lee, who was 78, grew the Samsung Group into South Korea’s biggest conglomerate and became the country’s richest person.

---

⁍ He was also convicted of bribery and tax evasion, and he and the empire he built were vilified for wielding huge economic clout.

---

– One of South Korea’s richest men has died after a six-year hospital stay. Lee Kun-hee, the 78-year-old vice chairman of Samsung Group and the only son of the group’s founder, died at a hospital in Suwon, south of Seoul, on Sunday afternoon after suffering a heart attack, the AP reports. The cause of death was not specified, but Lee had been in poor health. Lee helped build the Samsung Group into the world’s biggest conglomerate, including Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest maker of smartphones, semiconductors, and TVs. He was also convicted of bribery and tax evasion, though he was pardoned in 2008 for his role in a corruption scandal involving South Korean President Park Geun-hye. “Lee is such a symbolic figure in South Korea’s spectacular rise and how South Korea embraced globalisation, that his death will be remembered by so many Koreans,” the chief executive of corporate researcher firm Chaebul.com tells Reuters. “The leadership he showed will be a great example and courage for our companies as they overcome the crisis and challenges ahead amid difficult times we’re under due to the coronavirus.” South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a statement that Lee “will be a great example and courage for our companies as they overcome the crisis and challenges ahead amid difficult times we’re under due to the coronavirus.”