Prosecutors obtained an arrest warrant for a former Chinese employee who leaked personal information of more than 30 million Coupang members, and they have requested criminal justice cooperation from China. But it remains uncertain whether the Chinese side will apprehend the suspect and hand the person over to Korea.
Minister Jung Sung-ho of the Ministry of Justice appeared before The National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee on the afternoon of the 7th and, in response to a related question from People Power Party lawmaker Gwak Gyu-taek, said, "The Chinese suspect in the Coupang case is the subject of an arrest warrant obtained by the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office on Dec. 8 last year, and a red notice was requested from Interpol (ICPO)."
He added, "On Dec. 16, we requested criminal justice cooperation from China," and noted, "Judicial police are tracking the suspect and are identifying the facts."
In response to Gwak's question of whether prosecutors had obtained an arrest warrant for the former Chinese employee, the Minister initially said, "I was not briefed," and "The investigation is not being conducted by prosecutors." He later corrected himself, saying, "I could not answer properly because I do not clearly remember the exact briefing."
Gwak criticized, saying, "To request extradition, you must first obtain an arrest warrant, but the government is doing nothing," and, "The suspect is said to be in China, and Coupang ends up bringing in (a laptop pulled from a river) as if putting on a show, calling it evidence."
On this, the Minister said, "Since the Korea-China extradition treaty was concluded (in 2002), China has never complied with a request from our side to extradite a criminal," adding, "However, if (the person) is to come, we will do our utmost to carry out the necessary procedures." This remark came before the Minister corrected his answer.
Gwak that day questioned about Coupang while criticizing remarks made by President Lee Jae-myung in China. President Lee, on a state visit to China, was asked at a luncheon with the press in Shanghai that day about the view that "it is also true that our people hold antipathy, concern, and discomfort toward China based on issues such as structures in the West Sea, long-standing fine dust, and the leak of information by a Chinese employee at Coupang."
In response, the president said, "It is clear that we must be alert to and strictly sanction baseless and unnecessary hate-mongering." He went on, "The person who committed a crime at Coupang is Chinese. So what?" and added, "If it were a Japanese person, would you start hating Japanese people from then on? If there are Americans at Coupang, should we hate Americans like crazy? Why don't you do that, after all? It's baseless talk."