Prime Minister Kim Min-seok of South Korea shakes hands with US Vice President JD Vance during their meeting in Washington on Jan. 23, 2026. (courtesy of the prime minister’s office)
During his meeting with Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok on Friday, US Vice President JD Vance reportedly warned Korea to suspend or scale back “discriminatory” regulations and investigations against US-based tech firms such as Coupang.
At face value, this appears to be a warning against mistreating American companies. But in light of various factors, we have to conclude that Vance was maneuvered by various powerful lobbies, including Coupang itself, to overtly pressure the Korean government to turn down the heat on its investigation into a massive leak of customer data at Coupang — an e-commerce platform that does most of its business in Korea.
At least for the next three years, Korea will have to grapple with the immense uncertainty brought by Trump’s signature brand of unilateralism. It’s imperative that Korea set some fair but clear boundaries and respond firmly to unfair threats.
“Vice President JD Vance met with South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok in Washington last week and warned him against penalizing US tech firms including Coupang,” The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
“Vance told Kim that the US side wanted to see meaningful de-escalation in the South Korean government’s treatment of tech firms such as Coupang,” the US newspaper said, citing “people familiar with the meeting.”
“While Vance didn’t issue an explicit threat to Kim, the implication was that continued action against US tech firms could mean more complications for the US-South Korea trade deal, potentially leading to its unraveling and higher tariffs on South Korean goods,” the newspaper reported, citing the same sources.
The prime minister’s office said earlier that Kim had “shared the precise facts about the Coupang issue, explained that this was not discriminatory treatment against American companies, and cleared up the American side’s misunderstanding.” But it seems like the actual mood at the meeting was quite different.
“I understand that the Americans are taking the Coupang issue quite seriously. The vice president’s office even has a staffer assigned to the issue,” a source with knowledge of the matter told the Hankyoreh on Wednesday.
Coupang is currently facing sprawling investigations for not only a data breach affecting more than 30 million users, but also the circumstances of the death of a warehouse worker named Jang Deok-jun, alleged illegal labor practices and blacklisting of employees, and unfair internal transactions.
Amidst this scrutiny, two of Coupang’s major US investors sent a letter to the US Trade Representative characterizing the Korean government’s investigation as a witch hunt and calling for trade authorities to take retributive measures, while also sending a notice of intent to file arbitration claims and pursue investor-state dispute settlement to Korea’s Ministry of Justice. The investors invoke various stipulations in the free-trade agreement between the US and South Korea while claiming that the company is being discriminated against. With Washington now echoing these claims verbatim, it’s reasonable to assume that these letters were intended to threaten Korea.
Kim Bom-suk, also known as Bom Kim, the founder of Coupang who serves at the chairman of its US-based Coupang Inc., is reported to have close ties with some key members of the Trump administration. It’s possible that the US will continue to turn up the pressure on Korea as a result of Coupang’s powerful lobby. While candidly communicating with the US, Korea must hold fast to its principles.
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]