Wi Sung-lac, Director of the National Security Office accompanying President Lee Jae-myung on his overseas tour, said in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Tuesday that "it is true that the Coupang situation is affecting security consultations between Korea and the United States." While there had been observations that US political circles were attempting to link the Korean government's actions against Coupang to diplomatic issues, this marks the first time the presidential office has acknowledged it. The fact that the presidential office made this public at a time when 54 US Republican lawmakers sent a protest letter regarding Coupang to the Korean ambassador to the US is read as a sign of determination to prevent this issue from further escalating into a negative factor for the alliance.
Coupang is currently under investigation on charges of leaking personal information of some 33.7 million customers. It is difficult to understand why the punishment of an individual company with such clear culpability should be linked to national security issues in the first place. However, the US side is reportedly expressing reluctance regarding high-level security consultations on the nuclear-powered submarine construction and expansion of uranium enrichment rights that Korea is pursuing, claiming that Coupang, a US company, is being subjected to discriminatory treatment. This can only be seen as the result of Coupang's all-out lobbying combined with America First policies favoring its own companies. In fact, according to a US Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) report, Coupang Inc. (CPNG), the parent company of Coupang, poured $1.09 million into lobbying funds in the first quarter of this year alone. This is double the amount before the information leak incident. The lobbying targets extend beyond Congress to include the State Department, Treasury Department, Commerce Department, and the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), as well as the White House Chief of Staff's office and the Office of the Vice President.
The recent disagreement over the scope of the Korea-US combined military exercises, followed by the controversy over information sharing surrounding Unification Minister Chung Dong-young's "composition remarks," has also revealed discord between Korea and the US, which cannot be overlooked. It speaks volumes that the National Security Office director himself publicly acknowledged the "difference in perspective" between the two sides. With North Korea's missile provocations escalating, Korea and the US must not allow minor differences on major issues such as the transfer of wartime operational control to grow into serious discord. The government should maintain its stance of "reasonable handling" of the Coupang case in accordance with law and principle, while narrowing differences on security issues through more active communication on a separate track. A situation in which the interests of a mere delivery company shake the value of the Korea-US alliance must not continue.
