[THE INVESTOR] CJ Logistics, an affiliate of Korea’s food and entertainment giant CJ Group, said on Aug. 10 that an adviser at Samsung’s life insurer is joining the company as the vice president, in a sign of a thaw in the two conglomerates’ relations.

Park Keun-hee, who served as the CEO of Samsung Life Insurance, will be in charge of the overall management of CJ Logistics, according to the company.

CJ, run by Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee’s relatives, was part of the country’s largest conglomerate until it broke off in 1993.

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, the de facto chief of Samsung, and CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-hyun are known to have exchanged views over the latest transfer decision.

In April, a former CJ official was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison by the Supreme Court for recording compromising videos of Lee Kun-hee and using them to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from Samsung.

The videos leaked to the media in July 2016 indicated Lee bought sex five times between December 2011 and June 2013 at his homes in southern Seoul.

At the time of the recording, Samsung and CJ were locked in a legal dispute over assets left by late Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull.    

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)