Samsung apologizes for MERS outbreak in affiliated hospital

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong offered a public apology Tuesday for the massive outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) at Samsung Medical Center, affiliated with the country's largest conglomerate Samsung Group.

Lee, the group's heir apparent, told a press conference that the group's Samsung Medical Center in Seoul inflicted very big pain and anxieties on the general public and "I bow my head and apologize" for the massive outbreak of the deadly viral disease.

The son of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, who has been hospitalized at the Samsung hospital since May 2014 following a heart attack, expressed apologies to the dead with the MERS infection, their bereaved families, the patients still under treatment and others unexpectedly quarantined.

Three more MERS cases were reported Tuesday, bringing the combined infection to 175 since the first patient was discovered on May 20. Almost half of the MERS contagion came from the Samsung hospital.

Twenty-seven people have died of the MERS infection, and more than 2,800 people are still under quarantine.

Lee pledged to take responsibility for the patients to be treated at the hospital until they recover, saying the group will make all-out efforts to resolve the MERS outbreak at an earliest possible date in close cooperation with the authorities concerned.

The vice chairman vowed to carry out a broad range of reform for the group's hospitals after the MERS crisis ends, making apology for the group's failure to meet expectations and trust of the general public.

The younger Lee's public apology was a very rare move as he has refrained from appearing before the press due to the unique South Korean corporate culture that heirs apparent keep a low-key attitude.