From the right-wing group, I heard: “The Samsung unionists are
communists. Send them back to North Korea!”
In the wake of the botched recall of the Galaxy Note 7, I approached
one of the pro-Samsung demonstrators, who appeared dejected and
downtrodden.
“The world is watching and the Note 7 has failed,” he said. “I am
ashamed for our country. I am ashamed for Samsung.”
On the basis of the failure of a single line of smartphones, the nation’s
political leaders were seriously contemplating the possibility of a South
Korean economic decline.
“At a recent meeting with her aides, President Park showed a great deal
of concern after being briefed on the Galaxy Note 7,” a government
official told reporters. She called on everyone to “focus all our efforts on
minimizing the damage” to smaller firms.
Opposition leader Moon Jae-in, who would soon be elected president,
proclaimed: “This is not just Samsung’s trouble. It’s trouble for the entire
economy. Because people take pride in Samsung as a brand representing
South Korea, it is their trouble, too.”
—
THE BACKSTORY OF THE failure of the Galaxy Note 7 actually began five
years earlier, in July 2011. I was on a morning coffee break in
Gwanghwamun Square, on a sweltering summer day. I opened my
(Samsung) phone to an email from Samsung’s public relations team. It was
a response to a request that would define my work for the next decade.
“The interview is a go,” wrote Nam Ki-young, a staffer for Samsung
global communications. A few days later, I took a forty-five-minute
subway ride south, getting out at the nouveau riche district of Gangnam,
home to plastic surgery clinics and designer handbag shops. I emerged
through a revolving door straight into the basement of Samsung’s sleek,
towering compound—a quadrant of four glass buildings designed to look
like interlocking jigsaw pieces, inspired by the Korean craft of
woodworking. Samsung had built this center as a symbol of its mission: to
solve the world’s puzzles, a feat to be tackled by its greatest minds.
I was covering South and North Korea for Time, and Samsung had
invited me to come in so it could make an urgent case in its defense