Park Il, a spokesperson for South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, takes questions from the press on July 2, 2026, at the ministry headquarters in Seoul. (Yonhap)
South Korea expressed regret over a US House of Representatives report accusing Seoul of discriminating against American companies like Coupang, saying the document reflects only the e-commerce site’s unilateral claims.“The report’s claim that our government continues to subject Coupang to discriminatory investigations and unfair regulations is untrue,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Park Il said Thursday during a regular news briefing.“Regarding [Coupang’s] closed-door testimony about the matter to the US House Judiciary Committee, our government has faithfully explained our position in communications with the committee,” he said. “But we express regret that the committee’s report released on July 1 only reflects Coupang’s one-sided claims.”The spokesman insisted that investigations and measures against the company are being carried out in accordance with the law and without discrimination, saying Seoul guarantees a fair business environment regardless of place of origin. While Coupang Inc. is a US publicly traded company, its subsidiary Coupang Corp. does almost all of its business in South Korea. “We plan to keep engaging the House Judiciary Committee as well as Congress and the administration to convey accurate information and explain that our government is faithfully enforcing the bilateral trade agreement,” Park added. On Wednesday, the US congressional committee on its website released a 35-page report titled “Closed for Competition: South Korea’s Discriminatory Attacks on American-owned Businesses.” The report claimed that Seoul has targeted such companies for decades and recently ramped up discriminatory treatment against them.After calling Coupang’s personal data breach incident “unauthorized access” to the company’s data systems by “a disgruntled former employee,” the report criticized the Korean government for a “whole-of-government assault” on the e-commerce company.On how the company recovered the hacking suspect’s laptop from China, the report said, “South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) forced Coupang to send an employee to China in order to recover devices and sworn statements related to the data incident,” adding a detailed account of Coupang’s claim that the NIS ordered the operation.Analysts say the report reflects the tougher congressional scrutiny of US companies operating abroad that has emerged since the beginning of the second Trump administration.Historically, Congress has rarely held hearings on American corporate activity abroad, but recently held them over the European Union’s Digital Markets Act. The US even issued visa bans for figures involved in drafting the law, and the House issued two reports blasting the statute as infringing on freedom of expression. The report on Korea appears to fully reflect the content of closed-door testimony given on Feb. 23 by interim Coupang Corp. CEO Harold Rogers to the House Judiciary Committee. The latter did not officially adopt the report, which remains an interim document prepared by the staff of lawmakers on the committee. Seoul expects additional hearings and reports and plans to continue clarifying its principles and position to Congress.“After US lawmakers sent a joint letter on the Coupang issue, staff from the Korean Embassy paid them a visit and sent them a response,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs source said. “We will continue to clarify our position and strive to ensure that it does not strain bilateral relations.”By Park Min-hee, senior staff writerPlease direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
