SEOUL/BENGALURU (Reuters) - South Korea's biggest supermarket chain E-Mart Inc <139480.KS> on Thursday said it will close its stores in China after 20 years in the country, blaming ongoing losses and not tensions between Seoul and Beijing over North Korea's nuclear programme.
E-Mart will be the first major South Korean company to exit China since South Korea angered Beijing by deploying a U.S. missile defence system in April to counter threats from North Korea. South Korea has complained that some of its companies have faced a backlash in China as a result.
Chung Yong-jin, vice chairman of E-Mart parent Shinsegae Group, said on Wednesday the retailer would close its six stores in China once the leases expired.
The store closures were a purely commercial decision and had nothing to do with strained relations between China and South Korea, a company spokesman said on Thursday.
E-Mart had entered the Chinese market in 1997.
Despite conciliatory language from both countries since the new administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in began in early May, many South Korean companies say there has been no thawing in business relations.
South Korea's duty free industry has been particularly hard-hit, with store openings expected to be delayed amid a sharp drop in Chinese tourist numbers, a duty free store lobby group said on Thursday.
Almost 90 Lotte Mart stores in China remained closed as of Thursday, after South Korea's fifth-largest family-run conglomerate agreed in February to provide land for the U.S. missile system.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee in Seoul and Shashwat Pradhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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