A fugitive returns

last updated 8 January 2015

Seoul

The founder of Daewoo, once Korea’s second-largest company, ended nearly six years as a fugitive this week when he flew to Seoul to face trial for fraud. Kim Woo Choong started Daewoo in 1967 with a $5,000 loan. It grew into a huge conglomerate that made electronics, cars, and ships. But Daewoo collapsed into bankruptcy in 1999, overwhelmed by the huge debt it had accumulated to fund several acquisitions. Amid reports of financial irregularities, Kim went on the lam. He came back, the 68-year-old said in a handwritten statement, because “a dying fox returns to its lair.”