Samsung - Cradle to grave symbol of South Korea

By Jon Herskovitz

SEOUL (Reuters) - For life, death and everything in between in South Korea, Samsung is there. It can even make you more marriageable.

The Samsung Group is the country's largest conglomerate and has its hands in maternity wards and funeral halls, memory chips and supertankers as well as credit cards and life insurance.

On Tuesday, the man who ran the group for over 20 years, Lee Kun-hee, said he was stepping down after being indicted for tax evasion and breach of trust.

Lee's Samsung has been a constant in the lives of Koreans over the past two decades as the country moved to open democracy, emerged as one of the biggest economies in Asia and a global producer of high-end consumer goods.

"People believe Samsung is a company that never fails, which is why to them the person who built up that group with his management skills, Lee Kun-hee, is thought to be god-like," said Kim Sang-jo, executive director of Solidarity for Economic Reform, which is calling for better corporate governance.

Samsung, which means "three stars", is South Korea's best-known brand as well as its flagship firm for global success.

At home and abroad it is an inescapable presence with a name emblazoned on televisions and mobile phones. Its chips power computers and handheld communications devices. It is one of South Korea's staunchest patrons of the arts and a global sponsor for the Olympics.

The list of Samsung products and services is dizzying. It makes clothes and precision glass. It provides economic advice for the government. It runs hotels, a baseball team and the country's biggest amusement park.