Police seek arrest of S. Korean airline chief's daughter

Seoul, May 4 (IANS) South Korean police on Friday sought an arrest warrant against the younger daughter of the president of Korean Air for allegedly assaulting an advertising agency executive in April.

Cho Hyun-min, 35, a former senior executive of Korean Air and daughter of its chief Cho Yang-ho, allegedly flew into a rage during a meeting in April and threw a glass at an advertising agency official and juice at several other participants, according to a report in Yonhap news agency.

Cho denied the accusations during an interrogation on Wednesday, in which she said "she only pushed him when he failed to properly answer her question", a police official said.

The incident involving one of most prominent business families of South Korea has stirred up a huge controversy in the country and reopened the debate over the excessive power wielded by families who own the "chaebol" -- huge South Korean conglomerates.

Cho Hyun-min's elder sister and former Vice President of the group, Cho Hyun-ah, was sentenced to two years in prison for a notorious "nut rage" incident in 2014 during which she became enraged when a first-class flight attendant served her macadamia nuts in a bag instead of on a dish. The plane was forced to return to the gate at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport

Korean Air chief Cho Yang-ho recently offered a public apology and removed his two daughters from all their company posts. 

Prosecutors also accused Cho Hyun-min of smuggling in luxury goods into the country. Hundreds of employees of the airlines had convened a protest in central Seoul on Friday demanding that Cho Yang-ho step down as president.