Korean conglomerate owners have started to resume overseas business trips as focus shifts away from the bribery scandal that led to the impeachment of the president last month.

Business leaders spent several months putting major decisions on hold, as they were grilled by prosecutors on the intentions behind offering billions of won to ex-President Park Geun-hye’s friend Choi Soon-sil.

But with the probe over and public attention shifting from the scandal to the presidential election on May 9, tycoons appear to be gearing up to bolster their overseas businesses.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won left for Japan Monday afternoon on his private jet to meet executives at Toshiba in order to demonstrate his willingness to acquire the Japanese company’s memory chip business. SK declined to comment on his reported meeting with Toshiba executives, citing a non-disclosure agreement.

“I have nothing to say at the moment,” the chairman told reporters waiting for him at the Gimpo Business Aviation Center. “Let me talk after I return.”

Chey was leaving the country for the first time in four months, as an overseas travel ban on him was lifted last week. He was one of the business leaders grilled by the prosecution over the connections between them and the former president. Chey was cleared of all charges last week.

During his stay, the chairman of the nation’s third-largest conglomerate will meet with Mark Long, chief financial officer of Western Digital, a US company that jointly runs a semiconductor plant in Japan, according to local reports. Western Digital has recently demanded from Toshiba exclusive negotiating rights on the deal, citing their joint venture. The California-based chipmaker has invested 1.4 trillion yen ($12.7 billion) on a Toshiba plant since 2000. It has been seen as a suitable candidate by Japanese authorities, compared to Chinese rivals, whom they fear could leak the related technology.

In this context, Chey could seek a partnership with Western Digital, sources said, citing market rumors. Western Digital’s CFO is also in Japan, they added.

Chung Eui-sun, vice chairman of Hyundai Motor Group also left for China on Monday to seek a breakthrough over the South Korean carmaker’s struggling business there.

Hyundai Motor, the world’s fifth-largest carmaker, saw its sales in China tumble by half last month, amid intensifying anti-Korean sentiment there over the South Korean government’s decision to host an US anti-missile system.

The only son of the Hyundai Motor chief Chung Mong-koo is likely to visit Beijing Hyundai Motor Co. to review the carmaker’s sales strategy and to encourage workers there.

Chung was visiting China two weeks after his trip to the US. He attended the New York Motor Show and flew to Alabama, where the South Korean carmaker operates the production of cars for North America sales.

Without confirming his schedule, the company in Seoul said Chung was making trips in a row to check the carmaker’s operation in the two major markets.

Global sales by Hyundai Motor account for 86 percent of its sales, while Kia sold 82 percent of its total vehicles overseas last year.

China is Hyundai’s biggest market.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)