The “Amazon of Korea” is Burning: Data Leaks, Worker Deaths, and a CEO in Hiding
Imagine if Amazon leaked the personal data of two-thirds of the US population. Then, imagine that when Congress summoned Jeff Bezos to testify about this national crisis, he simply refused to show up, sending subordinate executives who required translators instead.
In South Korea, this scenario isn’t hypothetical. It’s happening right now.
Coupang, the e-commerce giant widely known as the “Amazon of Korea,” is facing a firestorm of public fury. On the surface, the anger stems from a catastrophic data breach compromising 33.7 million users—nearly 75% of Korean adults.
But beneath the surface, this latest scandal has ripped open old wounds. The current rage isn’t just about leaked data; it is the boiling point of years of resentment against a company that Koreans view as having prioritized ruthless efficiency over human life, and a CEO, Bom Kim, who seems to believe he is above the law of the land that made him a billionaire.
Here is why South Korea is furious with Coupang.
The Spark: A National Data Disaster and a “Ghost” CEO
Coupang is deeply embedded in Korean daily life. Its “Rocket Delivery” service is legendary. When news broke that the personal information of almost every economically active adult in the country had been compromised, it was viewed not merely as a corporate mishap, but as a national security crisis.
The South Korean National Assembly immediately summoned Coupang’s founder and CEO, Bom Kim (Kim Bom Suk), to testify.
Kim refused.
Despite Coupang generating over 90% of its revenue within South Korea, Kim—a U.S. citizen—cited his status as a “global CEO” or offered excuses regarding overseas business to avoid facing the country’s elected representatives. Instead, he sent foreign executives who could not speak Korean, turning a solemn parliamentary hearing into a spectacle requiring constant translation.
To the Korean public, this was more than evasion; it was a profound insult to national sovereignty. It reinforced the perception that Kim is happy to extract wealth from Korean consumers but uses his American passport as a shield against Korean accountability.
The Fuel: A History of Dehumanization
If the data leak was the spark, Coupang’s grim history regarding worker safety is the fuel.
For years, Coupang has been dogged by allegations of creating a brutal workplace culture, leading to multiple deaths due to gwarosa (death by overwork) in its fulfillment centers.
The public’s understanding of how Coupang handles these tragedies changed dramatically with recent revelations of internal operations following worker deaths.
The “Erase the Record” Directive Following the 2020 death of worker Jang Deok-jun, reports surfaced that Bom Kim allegedly gave a directive to ensure “no record of [the worker] working hard remains.” Subsequent investigations suggested that internal teams were instructed to selectively manipulate CCTV footage to downplay the physical toll of the job, highlighting moments of rest over the grueling labor that defined the workload.
The “Dehumanization Manual” Perhaps most shocking was the exposure of a “Confidential Industrial Accident Response Document.” This was not a safety manual; it was a damage control playbook. It allegedly detailed how to:
- “Manage” grieving families: Strategies to prevent bereaved relatives from demanding large settlements or speaking to the press.
- Block “contaminated information”: Deploying teams to funeral halls to physically prevent colleagues from speaking with the family or unions, fearing they might testify about the deceased’s workload.
Since these aggressive tactics were implemented, reports indicate that Coupang Fulfillment Services has not officially recognized a single case of death from overwork as an industrial accident.
The Escape Hatch: Dodging the Law
The final piece of the puzzle explaining Korean fury is how Bom Kim has navigated the legal system.
In January 2022, South Korea implemented the Serious Disaster Punishment Act (SDPA). This landmark law was designed to hold CEOs personally and criminally liable if their workers die due to safety negligence.
Just months before the law took effect, Bom Kim resigned from all his official representative positions in Coupang’s Korean entity, retaining only his role in the U.S. parent company.
While a Western business perspective might view this as strategic risk management, the Korean public viewed it as a cowardly “escape hatch.” By stepping down right before the law could touch him, Kim was seen as preemptively washing his hands of responsibility for the lives of the workers powering his logistics empire.
Conclusion: A Breach of Trust
In South Korea, there is a strong cultural expectation that major corporations act as “National Companies,” bearing a heightened moral duty to the society that sustains them.
Coupang has failed this test repeatedly.
The current fury is not just about a data leak. It is the collective roar of a populace tired of a company that dehumanizes its workers in life, manages their deaths as PR crises, and whose leader hides behind foreign citizenship when called to account. The Korean people are demanding more than apologies; they are demanding that the man who built the empire face the consequences of how it operates.
Image by 참여연대 (Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pspd1994/54960890258/) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
