although South Korea's benchmark CB index was one of the worst performers in Asia last year, it rebounded in 2024 fueled by investor frenzy over AI and the government's $470 billion plan with the private sector to make the country a global chip production hub. The Cosby's 11% rise since we last measured fortunes 12 months ago lifted the collective net worth of the country's 50 richest to $15 billion from $16 billion. There are four returnees to the ranks this year, including Chang Bangju, founder of online gaming firm Crafton. After falling from a pandemic-induced high, shares of Crafton rebounded more than 30% in the past year, boosted by the popularity of the Indian version of its hit video game PUBG Battlegrounds. Eight from last year dropped off, including former billionaire Chongyang Xi, whose biotech company K-Genen rode the weight loss wave but lost steam as product delays sent its share into a tailspin. Here are the top five richest billionaires in Korea for

2024. Number five: Monu Chung. Monu Chung was chairman of Hyundai Motor, South Korea's largest automaker, for more than 20 years before stepping down in March 2020. He was succeeded by his only son, Eus, who is also a billionaire. He is the second son of the late Chung Ju-Young, who came from a peasant family and later founded the Hyundai Group, once Korea's biggest conglomerate.

Number four: Cho Jang-Ho. Cho Jang-Ho is the chairman of Meritz Financial Group. He is the youngest of the four sons of Cho Chung-Hun, the late founder of Hanjin Group, the parent company of Korean Air. He worked for Korean Airlines in Europe and returned home in 1989 as a director with Hanjin Investment and Securities, as Meritz was then named.

Number three: So Jung-Jin. So Jang-Jin is co-founder of Celltrion, a biopharmaceutical firm that makes drugs to treat cancer, influenza, rheumatoid arthritis, among others, with the success of biosimilars.

in South Korea, celan has become a favorite among investors. Number two, Michael Kim. Michael Kim co-founded MBK Partners, the Seoul-based private equity firm that bears his initials and manages more than $30 billion in assets. His ING Insurance Korea, which went public in 2017, was the first company wholly owned by a private equity firm to list on the Korean exchange. Number one, JY Lee. JY Lee is the executive chairman of Samsung Electronics and leader of the country's biggest conglomerate. He was appointed to the role in October 2022, which had been left vacant since the death of his father in 2020. In 2017, he was jailed for bribing a confidant of former President Park Geun-hye but was released in 2018. In 2021, through a retrial, he was sentenced to 2 and 1/2 years in prison and then received a presidential pardon in 2022. In February 2024, Lee was acquitted of stock manipulation charges related to a 2015 merger between two Samsung

Affiliates that prosecutors said helped Lee cement control of the Samsung conglomerate. Lee and his family are in the process of paying 12 trillion W, about $8.5 billion, in inheritance taxes following the 2020 death of patriarch leun he.

Korea's 5 Richest Billionaires 2024

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