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2 Families, in Business for 50 Years, Wage War in a South Korean Boardroom
Control of Korea Zinc, the world’s largest producer of zinc, is at stake in a battle challenging the country’s entrenched chaebol system of powerful conglomerates.
Yun B. Choi, the chairman and chief executive of Korea Zinc. The company’s largest shareholder, Young Poong, is seeking to oust him from his role. Credit… Tina Hsu for The New York Times Jan. 21, 2025
When two longtime business partners established a subsidiary 50 years ago to make zinc out of an industrial complex set up by South Korea’s government, they settled on an unusual division of power.
The new venture, Korea Zinc, would be managed by the Choi family. The existing parent company, Young Poong, would be run by the other founder’s household, the Chang family. Both clans agreed to respect each other’s management. The arrangement came to be known as “two families under one roof.”
Korea Zinc went on to become the world’s largest producer of zinc and an essential cog of South Korea’s economy.
But now the relationship between the Chois and the Changs has broken down in dramatic fashion. The descendants of the two founders, who died decades ago, are locked in a bare-knuckle fight for control of Korea Zinc.
The feud has broader implications for South Korea’s biggest companies, testing whether the powerful family-run conglomerates, known as chaebols, can coexist with Western-style corporate governance. At the center of the battle is a company of great geopolitical significance, one of the few suppliers of metals critical to global supply chains without ties to China.
At a shareholder meeting on Thursday, the Choi family will seek to retain management rights for Korea Zinc and fend off a takeover attempt by Young Poong, still controlled by the Chang family. Young Poong has its own zinc-refining business as well as a bookstore chain and electronics components makers.
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