Coupang CEO Park Dae-jun resigned Wednesday, becoming the highest-profile executive casualty of what regulators are calling South Korea’s largest-ever data breach.
The e-commerce giant confirmed that personal information of nearly 34 million customers—roughly two-thirds of the country’s population—was compromised through overseas servers between June 24 and November. The company only disclosed the incident last month, raising questions about its internal monitoring systems.
Harold Rogers, chief administrative officer of U.S.-based parent Coupang Inc., will serve as interim chief executive.
The leadership change comes as police raided Coupang’s Seoul headquarters for a second consecutive day. Investigators are reportedly pursuing a former employee, a Chinese national who worked on the company’s authentication system, as a suspect.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called it “truly astonishing” that unauthorized access went undetected for five months. Prime Minister Kim Min-seok warned of strict enforcement action.
Coupang faces potential penalties of up to ₩1 trillion ($681 million) and class-action lawsuits in both South Korea and the United States. Company founder Bom Kim has been summoned to testify before the National Assembly on December 17.
The breach follows an April cyberattack on SK Telecom that resulted in a ₩134 billion ($91 million) fine, adding pressure on Korean regulators to tighten data protection enforcement.
