SEOUL: South Korea’s Lotte Group will continue to invest in its China business despite diplomatic tensions over the deployment of a US missile defence system, a Lotte executive said on Monday, denying rumours it wants to scale back there.
Chinese authorities closed dozens of Lotte retail stores following inspections, ramping up pressure on Korea’s fifth-largest family-run conglomerate after it agreed to provide land for the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile system outside Seoul.
South Korea and its ally the US say the system is designed to thwart nuclear-armed North Korea’s missile threat, but Beijing says its radar can also reach far into China. Chinese media have called for a boycott of Lotte businesses in response to the THAAD deployment.
“It’s been 20 years since Lotte entered the China market... we believe the China business is still in an investment period,” high-ranking executive Hwang Kag-Gyu said. — Reuters
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