How a simple consumer data breach spiraled into a national security crisis in U.S.-South Korea relations

When South Korea’s biggest online retailer revealed last year that a data breach had compromised tens of millions of customer accounts, it appeared to be a corporate crisis. But five months later the issue has grown into a diplomatic storm, threatening to further degrade relations between Seoul and the Trump administration.

Coupang – often described as South Korea’s answer to Amazon – is nominally a Korean company but operates from Seattle, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and is run by Korean-American billionaire Bom Kim. In November last year the company disclosed that a former employee had stolen an internal security key, enabling unauthorised access to data from 33.7 million users.

The breach triggered a widespread movement to abandon the service and a sweeping government response. Police raided the company’s Seoul headquarters, tax authorities launched a special audit, and parliament summoned executives for questioning. Kim refused to travel to Korea for hearings, citing his role as a global chief executive and Korean police have requested that immigration authorities notify them if he enters the country.

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