SK chief's daughter to fight piracy in Arabian Sea

A daughter of the chairman of SK Group, South Korea's No. 3 conglomerate, will be dispatched to the Gulf of Aden for an anti-piracy mission, the Navy said Wednesday.
 

Chey Min-jung, the second daughter of convicted SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, has drawn media attention after being commissioned as a naval officer last November.
  

"The ensign is to be sent to the Gulf of Aden as the 19th batch of troops for a six-month mission at the end of June," a naval officer said. She has been assigned to the country's KDX-II destroyer Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin to assist its commander's combat intelligence job.
  

The 4,400-ton ship will depart South Korea carrying the Cheonghae Unit to continue the country's commitment to the international effort to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia, he added.
  

Currently, a 300-strong contingent aboard the destroyer Wanggeon serves the mission. They were sent there in February.  
  

The 23-year-old Chey, also a granddaughter of Roh Tae-woo, the general-turned-president who led the country from 1988 to 1993, is the first woman from a conglomerate family to enlist in the military in a country where sons of the privileged are often caught dodging the mandatory military service.
  

In South Korea, all able-bodied young men are subject to compulsory military service for about two years. Women, on the other hand, are exempt from the duty, though they can volunteer.
  

The chairman Chey has been serving a four-year jail term since 2013 after being convicted of embezzling 46.5 billion won ($42.3 million) from two SK Group affiliates and funneling the funds into personal investments in 2008. (Yonhap)