South Korea: B. C. Lee's World

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The Best Way. Despite all such uproar, there is little doubt that Lee's Samsung Group of 20 companies, with $55 million in annual sales, has helped South Korea to become an economically viable nation. The 20,000 spindles and 150 looms of Lee's Cheil Wool Textile Industrial Co. Ltd. have not only halved the price of worsted goods for Koreans but have also helped the trade balance by sales to U.S. clothing manufacturers. Lee's sugar refinery at Pusan, started in 1953, provided the nation with a psychological lift because it was built at a time when the war with North Korea had left few businessmen willing to risk their capital on long-term investments. The urea-fertilizer plants, which will help make South Korea self-sufficient in fertilizer, are Lee's biggest project yet. His favorite enterprise is the Joong-Ang Mass Communications Center, headquartered in a nine-story Seoul office building where Lee works surrounded by teak-paneled walls and a collection of Oriental pottery. Joong-Ang includes a television station, South Korea's most popular radio station and the Joong-Ang Ilbo, a daily newspaper with a circulation of 325,000. "Mass communications," says Lee, "are the best way to prevent bad politics." They also happen to be a pretty good channel through which South Korea's biggest businessman can talk back to his various critics.