Choi Tae-won (63), chairman of SK Group, and Kim Hee-young (48), chairman of the T&C Foundation, appeared for the first time in public at a gala dinner event in Paris, France, on the 14th (local time). Chairman Choi, who visited Paris to attend an international symposium prepared by the Korean government 50 days before the decision to host the 2030 World Expo, attended a gala dinner event hosted by Louis Vuitton called “One Planet, Building Bridges To A Better Future.” Unlike the official event (symposium), the event invited representatives from the International Exposition Organization (BIE) member countries from the private sector. Major domestic and foreign figures, including former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former French President Carla Bruni, and businessmen, attended.Chairman Choi, chairman of the “2030 Busan Expo” private attraction committee, launched an all-out war to attract Busan ahead of the decision to host the 2030 World Expo. Chairman Choi attended the “2030 Busan World Expo Official Symposium” and foreign press conferences in Paris last week, and then returned home for a while to meet with the leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in Seoul to ask for support in hosting the Busan Expo and then left for Paris again. Meanwhile, Chairman Choi, who applied for divorce mediation in July 2017 after publicly acknowledging his out-of-wedlock children in 2015, is set to make his first trial in a divorce suit with Noh So-young (President Roh Tae-woo’s daughter), director of the art center Navi, on the 9th of next month. In March this year, director Roh also claimed 3 billion won in damages against Chairman Choi’s partner, Kim Hee-young, chairman of the T&C Foundation.
TED PARK
US ASIA JOURNAL
