Samsung chairman Lee departs for IOC briefing

Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee left for the International Olympic Committee’s headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Tuesday.

PyeongChang, like all cities bidding to host the 2018 Winter Olympics, is to participate in an official technical briefing at the organization’s headquarters from May 18-19. Lee is one of the IOC’s 110 members.

Lee was escorted by his son Lee Jae-yong, a president at the company, and Samsung executives including Kim Soon-taek, head of corporate strategy office and the flagship unit’s vice chairman Choi Gee-sung, before getting on the plane with his wife Hong Ra-hee to Switzerland’s fifth-largest city.

Lee did not respond to any reporters’ questions before departing from Gimpo Airport.

In Switzerland, he will attend the two-day briefing, according to a Samsung spokesperson.

Lee also plans to participate in the IOC session, which takes place July 6-9 in Durban, South Africa, that decides the final host of the 2018 Winter Olympics, she said.

On another front, Samsung’s vice chairman Choi said there is no need to be concerned about a number of matters involving Samsung ― Elpida’s developing and producing of dynamic random access memory, countersuit raised against Apple Inc. and Intel’s progress on developing 3-D semiconductor chips.

“Those who are worried will say we lack consciousness of a crisis if we say we’re confident, but it seems there’s not much to be concerned about the issues surrounding Apple, Elpida and Intel,” he said.

Choi then left for a business trip to Brazil with Yoon Boo-keun, chief of the company’s visual display business and mobile business president Shin Jong-kyun.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)