Shin Dong-joo asks court for control of father’s affairs

Shin Dong-joo, oldest son of Shin Kyuk-ho, Lotte Group’s founder and general chairman, said on Thursday he has asked the court to name him a legal guardian for his father.

Should the court approve the application that the general chairman signed a day earlier, Dong-joo will handle all personal affairs on behalf of his father.

“Shin Kyuk-ho, the general chairman, has been consistently expressing his will to refuse the forced guardianship that some family members had asked to assume through a trial with a foul intention of damaging his honor and effectively putting him in a vegetative status,” said Kim Soo-chang, Dong-joo’s attorney.

A Seoul court in September named a pro bono attorney group and a former chief of the Seoul High Court as guardians of the 95-year-old patriarch - eight months after his younger sister Shin Jung-sook filed a petition for four family members to become his guardians.

His sister argued that Shin was not in the right mental condition to make decisions, though he insisted he had no health issues. Dong-joo, former vice chairman of Lotte Holdings in Japan, argues his father has designated him heir to the nation’s biggest retail group instead of Dong-bin, his younger brother and Lotte Chairman. Lotte Group said the move is a “challenge” to the legal authority when a related trial is already under way.