According to Yonhap News, on January 23 local time, South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok visited the United States and held a meeting with U.S. Vice President Vance at the White House. After the meeting, Kim Min-seok revealed at a press conference that both sides exchanged opinions on the e-commerce platform Coupang.
He introduced that during the meeting, Vance stated that Coupang is an American company and fully understood that the business environment in South Korea differs from that in the U.S., but he wanted to know the specific issues. Kim Min-seok responded that in the case of the leakage of personal information of many South Korean citizens, Coupang delayed reporting the situation, and even recently falsely accused the South Korean president and prime minister.
On January 23 local time, South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok (left) met with U.S. Vice President Vance. Photo from Yonhap News.
Previously reported, Coupang is the largest e-commerce company in South Korea, founded by Korean-American Kim Beom-sik, and is headquartered in Seattle, USA, and listed in the U.S. Approximately 90% of its revenue comes from the South Korean market. In November last year, Coupang reported a customer data breach incident, affecting about 33.7 million customers, causing public outcry and public dissatisfaction, prompting the South Korean government to launch a hearing and investigation into the incident.
Coupang claimed that only about 3,000 accounts were leaked, and its board chairman Kim Beom-sik and others also refused to attend the hearing. Furthermore, two U.S. investment companies of Coupang sent an arbitration notice to the South Korean government on the 22nd, accusing the South Korean government of treating "American companies differently," constituting discrimination against American technology companies, and demanding compensation from the South Korean government.
These two companies also accused Kim Min-seok for calling on the South Korean government to regulate Coupang, saying "to deal with Coupang issues with the determination of eliminating a gang." In addition, they asked the U.S. government to investigate the matter.
"Vance requested both governments to properly manage this issue to ensure it does not lead to misunderstandings between the two governments or escalate the situation," said Kim Min-seok.
Kim Min-seok said that in order to prove Coupang's claims were baseless, he directly handed over the English version of the news release to Vance during the meeting and stated that South Korea had not treated Coupang differently in handling related issues. He added, "The Republic of Korea-U.S. relationship is strong enough not to be influenced by lobbying activities by specific companies."
Han Il-young, Director General of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's Office of Foreign Trade Negotiations, said on the 24th that during his visit to Washington last week, he had met with U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Greer and several members of both chambers of the U.S. Congress, and explained the South Korean position. According to him, the investigation into Coupang's major data breach should be handled separately from broader trade issues between South Korea and the U.S.
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Original: toutiao.com/article/7599196823437328923/
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