[LETTER TO THE EDITOR]Don’t blame Samsung

Regarding your editorial “Harmonize Law With Reality” (Oct. 6), you have touched on an issue that is becoming more and more apparent in Korea.
Amid the economic and business environment in Korea since the economic crisis in 1997, many companies, most recently Samsung Group and some of the huge foreign investment companies that have been active in Korea, have become modern-day Icarus-like characters.
Whoever flies “too close to the sun” or is a little too successful gets their knuckles rapped for any perceived, alleged or actual breaking of the law.
Even though I am not a businessperson, economist or lawyer, it seems obvious, even to an average person, that the current government shames itself when it rabidly prosecutes foreign and domestic businesses for exploiting loopholes in the law.
Whose incompetence is it that such gaping loopholes seem to exist in the legal system? Clearly, legal reform and governmental transparency are at an immature stage in Korea.
Furthermore, you are concerned about Samsung maintaining its local image and a harmonious balance in its reputation.
Given that Samsung’s current growth and fortunes are undeniably linked to exports and foreign demand for its products, and that domestic consumption is flat at best, there seem few reasons Samsung should be concerned.

by Mike Sluchinski