SEOUL — A bitter family dispute inside South Korea’s LG Group has taken another dramatic turn after a Seoul court rejected a legal attempt to sever the adoption relationship between LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and his adoptive mother, Kim Young-sik.
The Seoul Family Court on Sept. 3 dismissed Kim’s petition seeking judicial dissolution of her adoptive relationship with Koo. The court did not disclose its specific reasoning when the ruling was announced.
The decision means Koo Kwang-mo’s legal status as an adopted son remains unchanged for now.
A family dispute tied to LG’s succession
The case is closely connected to a much larger dispute over the inheritance of the late LG Chairman Koo Bon-moo.
Koo Kwang-mo is the biological son of Koo Bon-moo’s younger brother, Koo Bon-neung, the chairman of Heesung Group. After Koo Bon-moo lost his only son in an accident, he adopted his nephew in 2004, when Koo Kwang-mo was 26. The adoption paved the way for Koo Kwang-mo to eventually succeed him at LG.
When Koo Bon-moo died in 2018, Koo Kwang-mo inherited most of his adoptive father’s shares in LG Corp. and became the company’s largest shareholder, cementing his position at the top of the conglomerate.
The inheritance fight came first
The family conflict intensified in 2023 when Kim Young-sik and her two daughters, Koo Yeon-kyung and Koo Yeon-soo, launched legal proceedings seeking redistribution of assets inherited after Koo Bon-moo’s death.
That inheritance case became the backdrop to Kim’s subsequent adoption-dissolution petition, which she filed in November 2024.
In February 2026, a separate first-instance court ruling went in Koo Kwang-mo’s favor in the inheritance dispute. The court found that the inheritance agreement was valid and rejected the family members’ claims challenging the distribution. An appeal is now proceeding.
Kim signals the fight may continue
After the Sept. 3 adoption ruling, Kim reportedly said she did not believe she and Koo Kwang-mo could continue their relationship as mother and son.
She also indicated that she would continue seeking a way to resolve the relationship, a statement that has been interpreted by Korean media as a possible indication that the legal battle could continue through an appeal.
The court’s dismissal, however, does not itself decide the separate inheritance dispute.
Why this matters for LG
The case goes beyond a private family disagreement.
Koo Kwang-mo’s position as LG chairman and major shareholder is closely tied to the succession structure established after Koo Bon-moo’s death. The legal challenges have therefore attracted significant attention because they involve both family inheritance and the ownership structure of one of South Korea’s largest conglomerates.
For now, the latest court decision leaves the adoption relationship legally intact while the broader inheritance dispute continues through the appeals process.
WWC ONE MEDIA M.J.E
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