No, the chaebol are absolutely a thing. That's how South Korea rebuilt after the wars. That's how we have Samsung and LG. Those families make up a majority of the country's GDP, and lobby substantially.
I'm Korean and I know what chaebols are 😂. They get many perks like not going to jail after committing crimes, but they don't control all aspects of people's lives here. That is overexaggeration and simply not true.