Samsung chairman returns to South Korea after extended stay overseas

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee, the powerful head of South Korea's largest business conglomerate, returned home Saturday for the first time since leaving the country last year for a medical check in the United States, a Samsung spokesman said. 

Lee, who left for the United States in September, returned to South Korea from Japan, where he had stayed since late December, said Samsung spokesman Yim Jun-seok. Lee, 64, underwent surgery for lung cancer in the United States several years ago.