{"id":247659,"date":"2026-02-11T01:21:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/uncategorized\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T07:07:15","slug":"secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret Life of Seo Mi-kyung: From Miss Lotte to Lotte’s Hidden Wealth"},"content":{"rendered":"
A tale reminiscent of a Hollywood movie is making headlines, featuring a powerful business tycoon who, in a manner eerily similar to Joseon Dynasty kings selecting concubines, set his sights on a 14-year-old girl and whisked her away as soon as she came of age. The protagonists of this real-life drama are none other than the late Shin Kyuk-ho, founder of the Lotte Group empire, and Seo Mi-kyung, the inaugural Miss Lotte pageant winner. <\/p>\n

The story’s origins date back to 1972 when Seo, a mere 14-year-old, stunned the nation by clinching the grand prize at the first-ever Miss Lotte contest. With her doll-like features, she skyrocketed to stardom almost overnight. However, the plot thickens with the revelation that Shin had his eye on her from that very moment.<\/p>\n

\" 
  Seo Mi-kyung (left), Kim Bo-mi (right) \u2013 Source: Stills from the movie ‘We Took the Night Train’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1981, just as Seo reached adulthood, a bombshell hit the entertainment world. At the zenith of her career, she abruptly announced her retirement and jetted off to Japan, ostensibly for studies.<\/p>\n

Seo’s whereabouts became a subject of intense speculation until it was later revealed that she had been living as the ‘secret mistress of Lotte,’ alongside Chairman Shin, who was a staggering 38 years her senior.<\/p>\n

\" 
  During her time as a model for Sunday Seoul and in advertisements<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shin’s infatuation with Seo was reportedly off the charts. Despite having a wife and children, he lavished her with astronomical wealth.<\/p>\n

Industry insiders estimate that Seo’s fortune, amassed during her three-decade-long seclusion, could be in the ballpark of 1 trillion KRW (approximately 750 million USD). In a jaw-dropping display of favoritism, Shin allegedly gifted her a larger stake in the company than his own sons, Shin Dong-joo and Shin Dong-bin.<\/p>\n

\" 
  Seo Mi-kyung (left), the late Shin Kyuk-ho (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seo Mi-kyung traded the glitz and glamour of stardom for a life in the shadows of a chaebol dynasty. While she may have vanished from the public eye for decades, the opulent lifestyle she enjoyed behind closed doors far outshone any red carpet.<\/p>\n

Their relationship, defying a 38-year age gap, was more than just a May-December romance. It continues to be a hot topic, intertwined with the labyrinthine world of chaebol asset succession and family politics.<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A story reminiscent of the Joseon era highlights the relationship between Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho and Miss Lotte, Seo Mi-kyung.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/contents-cdn.viewus.co.kr\/image\/2026\/02\/CP-2025-0110\/image-37749d26-2c36-439e-afc6-0af2642c7751.jpeg","footnotes":""},"categories":[278103],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Secret Life of Seo Mi-kyung: From Miss Lotte to Lotte's Hidden Wealth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A story reminiscent of the Joseon era highlights the relationship between Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho and Miss Lotte, Seo Mi-kyung.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ko_KR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Secret Life of Seo Mi-kyung: From Miss Lotte to Lotte's Hidden Wealth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A story reminiscent of the Joseon era highlights the relationship between Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho and Miss Lotte, Seo Mi-kyung.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"nonhyeon-ilbo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-10T16:21:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-15T07:07:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/CP-2025-0110-35030473_thumb.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1421\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\uac1c\ubc1c\uae30\ud68d\ud300\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\uac1c\ubc1c\uae30\ud68d\ud300\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/b2265094fd34d8bb5cfbaf6040fa17d3\"},\"headline\":\"The Secret Life of Seo Mi-kyung: From Miss Lotte to Lotte’s Hidden Wealth\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-10T16:21:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-15T07:07:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/\"},\"wordCount\":393,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/contents-cdn.viewus.co.kr\/image\/2026\/02\/CP-2025-0110\/image-37749d26-2c36-439e-afc6-0af2642c7751.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Media\"],\"inLanguage\":\"ko-KR\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/\",\"name\":\"The Secret Life of Seo Mi-kyung: From Miss Lotte to Lotte's Hidden Wealth\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/contents-cdn.viewus.co.kr\/image\/2026\/02\/CP-2025-0110\/image-37749d26-2c36-439e-afc6-0af2642c7751.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-10T16:21:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-15T07:07:15+00:00\",\"description\":\"A story reminiscent of the Joseon era highlights the relationship between Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho and Miss Lotte, Seo Mi-kyung.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"ko-KR\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"ko-KR\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/contents-cdn.viewus.co.kr\/image\/2026\/02\/CP-2025-0110\/image-37749d26-2c36-439e-afc6-0af2642c7751.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/contents-cdn.viewus.co.kr\/image\/2026\/02\/CP-2025-0110\/image-37749d26-2c36-439e-afc6-0af2642c7751.jpeg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"\ud648\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Media\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/category\/media\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"The Secret Life of Seo Mi-kyung: From Miss Lotte to Lotte’s Hidden Wealth\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/\",\"name\":\"nonhyeon-ilbo\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"nonhyeon-ilbo\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"ko-KR\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"nonhyeon-ilbo\",\"alternateName\":\"nonhyeon-ilbo\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"ko-KR\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cdn.tenbizt.com\/tenbizt\/2026\/02\/05114330\/mvp-org-logo-696x696-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.tenbizt.com\/tenbizt\/2026\/02\/05114330\/mvp-org-logo-696x696-1.jpg\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"nonhyeon-ilbo\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/b2265094fd34d8bb5cfbaf6040fa17d3\",\"name\":\"\uac1c\ubc1c\uae30\ud68d\ud300\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/author\/fastmaster\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Secret Life of Seo Mi-kyung: From Miss Lotte to Lotte's Hidden Wealth","description":"A story reminiscent of the Joseon era highlights the relationship between Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho and Miss Lotte, Seo Mi-kyung.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/","og_locale":"ko_KR","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Secret Life of Seo Mi-kyung: From Miss Lotte to Lotte's Hidden Wealth","og_description":"A story reminiscent of the Joseon era highlights the relationship between Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho and Miss Lotte, Seo Mi-kyung.","og_url":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/","og_site_name":"nonhyeon-ilbo","article_published_time":"2026-02-10T16:21:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-15T07:07:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1421,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/CP-2025-0110-35030473_thumb.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"\uac1c\ubc1c\uae30\ud68d\ud300","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/"},"author":{"name":"\uac1c\ubc1c\uae30\ud68d\ud300","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/b2265094fd34d8bb5cfbaf6040fa17d3"},"headline":"The Secret Life of Seo Mi-kyung: From Miss Lotte to Lotte’s Hidden Wealth","datePublished":"2026-02-10T16:21:27+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-15T07:07:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/"},"wordCount":393,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/contents-cdn.viewus.co.kr\/image\/2026\/02\/CP-2025-0110\/image-37749d26-2c36-439e-afc6-0af2642c7751.jpeg","articleSection":["Media"],"inLanguage":"ko-KR"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/","url":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/","name":"The Secret Life of Seo Mi-kyung: From Miss Lotte to Lotte's Hidden Wealth","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/contents-cdn.viewus.co.kr\/image\/2026\/02\/CP-2025-0110\/image-37749d26-2c36-439e-afc6-0af2642c7751.jpeg","datePublished":"2026-02-10T16:21:27+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-15T07:07:15+00:00","description":"A story reminiscent of the Joseon era highlights the relationship between Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho and Miss Lotte, Seo Mi-kyung.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"ko-KR","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"ko-KR","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/contents-cdn.viewus.co.kr\/image\/2026\/02\/CP-2025-0110\/image-37749d26-2c36-439e-afc6-0af2642c7751.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/contents-cdn.viewus.co.kr\/image\/2026\/02\/CP-2025-0110\/image-37749d26-2c36-439e-afc6-0af2642c7751.jpeg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/media\/2026\/02\/11\/secret-life-seo-mi-kyung-miss\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\ud648","item":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Media","item":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/category\/media\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Secret Life of Seo Mi-kyung: From Miss Lotte to Lotte’s Hidden Wealth"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/","name":"nonhyeon-ilbo","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#organization"},"alternateName":"nonhyeon-ilbo","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"ko-KR"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#organization","name":"nonhyeon-ilbo","alternateName":"nonhyeon-ilbo","url":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"ko-KR","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cdn.tenbizt.com\/tenbizt\/2026\/02\/05114330\/mvp-org-logo-696x696-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.tenbizt.com\/tenbizt\/2026\/02\/05114330\/mvp-org-logo-696x696-1.jpg","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"nonhyeon-ilbo"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/b2265094fd34d8bb5cfbaf6040fa17d3","name":"\uac1c\ubc1c\uae30\ud68d\ud300","url":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/news\/author\/fastmaster\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247659"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenbizt.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}