Industry minister to visit US this week for talks on bilateral issues, possibly including Coupang
Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan speaks at a meeting innovative energy companies in Jeju, July 15, in this photo provided by the ministry. Yonhap
Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan will visit the United States this week to attend a ceremony for a joint shipbuilding center, government officials said Sunday, with attention focused on whether he will also discuss the thorny issue involving U.S.-listed e-commerce giant Coupang.
Kim will travel to Washington to attend the opening ceremony of the Korea-U.S. Shipbuilding Partnership Center on Thursday (local time), where he is expected to discuss ways to advance bilateral cooperation in the shipbuilding industry. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is also expected to attend the event.
Observers say Kim could use the upcoming trip to explain Seoul's position amid continued complaints from Washington over the investigation into a massive data leak at Coupang, which has emerged as a source of friction between the allies after some U.S. officials and lawmakers raised concerns about whether the company was being treated unfairly.
South Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Kang Kyung-wha returned to Seoul last week for consultations with relevant government agencies.
The ongoing tension has drawn growing attention after a House Judiciary Committee report and a White House official recently criticized South Korea's regulatory probes into Coupang's massive data leak as discriminatory.
The South Korean government has maintained that the probe into Coupang is being carried out without discrimination in accordance with due process under domestic law.
The data leak, reported late last year, affected nearly 34 million user accounts at Coupang, according to the outcome of a police investigation here. The number represents nearly two thirds of South Korea's entire population of about 51.6 million.
Coupang, however, earlier sought to downplay the incident, claiming it had affected only about 3,000 customers, citing its own investigation.