Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong returns from first business trip since release

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong returned to Seoul from a 16-day business trip to Europe and North America early Saturday morning, as the industry remained abuzz over when the recently-released heir would officially return to work.

At around 6 a.m. Lee was spotted arriving through Incheon International Airport’s Terminal 2, after the trip known to have been aimed at restoring relations with business partners and catching up on latest tech trends.

Lee didn't make any answers to questions on businesses raised by reporters at the airport.

It was his first public move after being released from jail on suspension of a 2.6-year imprisonment for four years on Feb. 5.

Lee has maintained low profile since his release February with industry watchers citing volatile public opinion as the heir of South Korea’s largest conglomerate still awaits the final verdict on his bribery charges by the Supreme Court possibly by this August.

The Samsung heir was put under custody with an indictment of charges of bribing former President Park Geun-hye in February 2017 and sentenced to 5 years in the first trial. 

His last stop is presumed to have been  Tokyo. He also visited Montreal, Canada, where Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology is running a laboratory on AI technologies needed for autonomous driving, robots, translation, image and voice recognition with local experts.

His whereabouts in Canada were first spotted by some Koreans in Toronto on earlier this week at local restaurants. Lee appeared to be friendly and casual as he willingly allowed Koreans there to take pictures later posted on Instagram.

In the last week of March, when Lee was reportedly staying in Europe, during which Samsung's Chief Strategy Officer Young Sohn from the Silicon Valley met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris and agreed to establish a Samsung research center on AI in the city.

Lee’s latest moves are interpreted by Samsung officials as determination to restart his business affairs that will mostly take place overseas for global growth of Samsung. 

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)