US-based ‘Amazon of South Korea’ forced to recover – Business News
South Korea’s authorities allegedly forced a US web retailer to perform a weird and dangerous plot to recover a stolen laptop computer from the underside of a river in China – half of a high-level data-privacy clampdown that US officers declare is the newest instance of the nation’s anti-American tech laws run amok.
A House Judiciary Committee report launched on Wednesday detailed how Seattle-based Coupang – generally known as the “Amazon of South Korea” the place it does 90% of its business – believed it had no selection however to rent scuba divers for the James Bond-style caper as high South Korean regulators pressed for an elaborate probe of a November knowledge breach that affected 33 million clients.
Coupang launched a photograph of the destroyed MacBook Air laptop computer that was recovered from a river in China by a dive crew deployed by the US tech company. Coupang
Indeed, whereas South Korea’s National Intelligence Service denied any involvement, Coupang compiled a host of proof to the opposite — together with messages from a senior authorities aide affirming that South Korea’s president had been briefed on the operation.
The “highest levels of the South Korean government, including President Lee Jau-myung himself, knew that the NIS had been closely instructing Coupang on the recovery operation and that Coupang acted in response to these directives,” the report mentioned.
Coupang confronted 40 investigations from 11 totally different South Korean businesses, threats of journey bans for its executives and potential fines of up to 10% of its international income, the report mentioned. On June 11, South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission fined Coupang $410 million — almost twice its revenue final yr — after discovering that the company had illegally harvested buyer knowledge.
The December mission targeted on a rogue Coupang worker, a Chinese national who had allegedly extracted the personal knowledge of 3,000 clients — a tiny fraction of the 33 million who have been caught in a large knowledge breach on the company reported on Nov. 27 – and fled to Shanghai, in accordance to the report.
Coupang contacted the rogue worker, who confessed and agreed to flip over a number of gadgets linked to the theft – aside from a laptop computer he had tossed into a Shanghai river in a panic, in accordance to the 35-page report, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.
South Korea’s NIS allegedly informed Coupang that its brokers couldn’t personally retrieve the gadgets as a result of Chinese law bars international intelligence businesses from working on its soil. Instead, it ordered Coupang to ship one of its own staff to gather the gadgets and the rogue worker’s fingerprints – all below the Chinese authorities’s nostril.
A photograph of the Shanghai river the place a rogue Coupang worker threw a laptop computer tied to the info breach. Coupang
A Coupang rep traveled to Shanghai on Dec. 17 to meet with the suspect and his lawyer, who handed over a desktop PC, 4 exhausting drives and copies, a graphics card and a signed confession. But the following day, the NIS informed Coupang it was nonetheless required to recover the lacking laptop computer.
Coupang complied — hiring a scuba diving crew to fish the machine out of the dirty water, in accordance to the report.
All of the recovered supplies, together with the gadgets, the worker’s confession and fingerprints, have been submitted to a ready NIS official, who introduced them to the close by Korean consulate in Shanghai. The Coupang worker was informed to confirm there have been “no CCTV cameras to capture the handoff,” in accordance to a doc cited within the report.
After the “dangerous recovery operation” was deemed a success, South Korea and its National Intelligence Service surprised Coupang officers by denying any participation, in accordance to the report to the House Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
The House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan, spearheaded the probe. AFP by way of Getty Images
Coupang’s interim CEO Harold Rogers informed House Judiciary officers that he “never would’ve authorized an employee to go to China” or “authorized hiring a diving crew in broad daylight in China to retrieve a device unless [he] firmly believed that [Coupang] had a legal obligation and a requirement to do so,” the report mentioned.
Other proof included a signed letter from an NIS dated Dec. 2 confirming that Coupang had a legal obligation to adjust to its orders. Between Dec. 1 and Dec. 26, the NIS exchanged more than 230 cellphone calls with Coupang associated to its investigation into the info breach and likewise held a number of in-person conferences with the company in regards to the restoration plan, the report added.
The stress marketing campaign got here to a head on the finish of December, when Coupang’s Rogers was grilled during two days of hearings by South Korea’s National Assembly.
When Rogers testified that Coupang had adopted “this agency’s instructions” about containing the info breach, referring to the NIS, the federal government responded by threatening legal perjury expenses towards him, in addition to a potential journey ban. Those expenses are nonetheless pending.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung addresses a ceremony at Suwon Convention Center in Suwon, South Korea, 25 June 2026. YONHAP/EPA/Shutterstock
The NIS explicitly denied Coupang’s claims in a press release on Dec. 26 and again on Dec. 30, declaring they have been “completely false.”
“This is directly contradicted by documents and testimony obtained by the Committee,” the House Judiciary report mentioned.
The Coupang operation was half of an effort to hamstring US tech companies that South Korea fears are a risk to homegrown rivals, in accordance to the report. Google’s Maps service is presently banned within the nation, whereas OpenAI, Meta, Apple and Netflix have all confronted investigations from South Korean regulators.
“South Korea has weaponized digital laws and regulations to hinder the ability of innovative American companies to effectively compete in its market,” added the report, which in contrast the nation’s regulatory ways to these employed by Europe towards the US tech industry.
Coupang particularly has been a repeated goal for high South Korean officers, famous Kate Kalutkiewicz, who served as senior director of commerce coverage on the National Economic Council during President Trump’s first time period in workplace.
Coupang relies in Seattle however derives most of its income from South Korea. Coupang
That contains South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who declared on Dec. 2 that Coupang and different firms that violate knowledge security guidelines ought to face penalties so extreme that they may exit of business.
“I think it’s a very big deal,”Kalutkiewicz mentioned. “If we’re talking about a partner like South Korea, the fact that it is threatening criminal charges and the type of harassment and accusations being levied at executives of a of a large American company is fairly unusual, to say the least.”
Korea’s SK Telecom was fined simply $97 million for a breach that uncovered about 27 million clients together with delicate consumer knowledge, whereas one other firm, Kakao, was fined $11 million for a breach that uncovered about 40 million accounts.
Coupang has mentioned cybersecurity specialists who reviewed the breach mentioned it was minor in nature and didn’t end in hurt to clients.
“We regret the circumstances that led to the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation and we remain committed to finding a constructive resolution so Coupang can once again serve as a bridge to strengthen the US-Korea alliance, accelerating trade and investment that benefits both countries,” a Coupang Inc. spokesperson mentioned in a assertion.
Coupang’s interim CEO Harold Rogers was threatened with a journey ban and perjury expenses. Getty Images for Semafor World Economy
Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on June 2 that US firms are going through “targeting in South Korea” which had “frankly impacted our ability to conclude a trade agreement with them.” Coupang, which was based by Harvard-educated Korean American Bom Kim, claims to be the poster youngster for that mistreatment.
Aside from high Trump administration officers like Vice President JD Vance, lawmakers on either side of the aisle have rallied to Coupang’s protection, together with more than 50 Republicans who ripped South Korea’s regulatory ways in a fiery April letter.
Demetrios Marantis, a former appearing US Trade Representative, described the South Korean authorities’s therapy of Coupang as “by far the worst that I’ve ever seen in 30-plus years.”
“There is a whole-of-government assault on a US company in a way that is so disproportionate to how the Korean government has treated Korean and Chinese companies who have been in similar situations,” Marantis mentioned.
South Korean authorities officers didn’t instantly return requests for remark.
