Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong's son, Lee Ji-ho, will enlist next month as a Navy officer. Chey Tae-won, the SK Group chairman and No. 2 in the business world, saw his second daughter, Choi Min-jung, enlist as a Navy officer in 2014. Lee will enlist on the 15th of this month as a 139th-class Navy officer candidate (OCS·Officer Candidate School). A dual national, Lee renounced U.S. citizenship to fulfill the duty of defense. After 11 weeks of education and training, he is set to be commissioned on Dec. 1 as a Navy second lieutenant and interpreter officer.
In 3–4th, there were also recruitment notices for officer candidates in the Army and Air Force. Army, Air Force, and Navy officer candidates are open to applicants who have graduated from or are expected to graduate from four-year universities in Korea or abroad, and it appears Lee chose the Navy among them. After submitting an application in Mar., Lee took the first written test in Korean, English, and math on Apr. 19, then went through the second round, including interviews and a physical fitness test, and received word of final acceptance on 7th.
Lee will become a junior to Chairman Chey's second daughter, Choi Min-jung. In 2014, Choi volunteered to enlist as a Navy officer candidate (139th class), the same as Lee, was commissioned as a second lieutenant, and served a six-month deployment aboard the Cheonghae Unit's ROKS Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia.
Lee appears to have chosen the Navy because it carries a lighter burden of exposing one's private life and offers the chance to build expertise. The roots of the Navy trace to Britain's Royal Navy, and in European social circles, Navy officers are held in high regard. The Wallenberg family of Sweden has a tradition in which key figures who have participated in management across five generations, starting with founder André Oscar Wallenberg in 1856, served as Navy officers.
The Navy offers many opportunities for joint training and deployments with foreign navies, allowing service members to gain international experience and use English frequently. It provides training in navigation, ocean engineering, mechanical, and electronic technologies, and compared with the Army, it entails a relatively lighter burden of frontline duty.
Because life is mainly spent aboard ships, there is also the advantage of a lighter burden of exposing one's private life. In addition, submarines and warships operate through cooperation among many people, which helps in understanding discipline and organizational culture.
Some chaebol families choose a military branch that aligns with their business characteristics and family traditions. The most notable examples are Hanwha and HD Hyundai.
Hanwha Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan, the eldest son of Chairman Kim Seung-yeon, and Hanwha Life President Kim Dong-won are both former Air Force officer candidates. Chairman Kim's younger brother, Binggrae Chairman Kim Ho-yeon, also completed service as an Air Force officer.
The HD Hyundai family has close ties to the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). Chung Mong-joon, chairman of the Asan Foundation, and Chung Ki-sun, senior vice chairman of HD Hyundai Group, are a father-and-son ROTC pair who served as Army officers. Chung has a special affection for ROTC, such as by providing a barbecue special for 300 people to Navy ROTC candidates who completed winter training in Jan.