The government tried to use Samsung's connection and money to shore up its viability, and Samsung wanted the repreieve from government attack on group's founding family. The government may have also wanted Samsung to spearhead N. Korean venture, which is one of the centerpiece to the current government. If that was the case, Samsung did not really bite.
After about 9 months, government's honeymoon with Samsung is abruptly over. Now that growing wiretapping scandal implicates Mr. Hong as a principal bagman and the government effort to paint itself as pragmatic moderate is paying no dividend, it went back to its anti-big business leftist root. The government is demanding Mr. Lee Keun-hee to testify in person.
What the government is doing is not just to go after Samsung. It simultaneously going after the former president Kim Dae-jung under whose tenure much of rampant wiretapping had occurred. Apparently, Roh want to completely control Kim Dae-jung and Kim's loyal support base by turning heat on Kim.
Any way, there is a financial legislation quite unfavorable to Samsung pending in S. Korean legislature, illegal political donation scandal, and latent anxiety of hostile take-over by foreign entities. And now this tragic family event. This must be the worst year for Samsung's owner.