[News Today] What lies behind belated apology

[LEAD]
Coupang Inc. CEO Kim Bom-suk has issued a long-awaited apology over the massive data breach.

However, critics say the apology appears to be designed to shield the company from mounting legal and political pressure.

Here's more.

[REPORT]
"My apology comes too late."

"I can't express how terribly I feel."

Half of Coupang Inc. CEO Kim Bom-suk's letter of apology is the expression of remorse and regret.

Of some two thousand characters, nearly a thousand are about apology.

But beneath it lies a highly calculated strategy.

Aside from the phrase "misjudgment," the statement doesn't mention "wrongdoing" anywhere.

It instead describes the massive data breach and the related events as failures and insufficiencies.

The statement refers to the damage caused to customers through emotional terms such as "anxiety" and "concern" without mentioning any concrete damage.

Kim says he inevitably had to postpone his apology because he was asked by the government to keep the matter confidential, thus passing the blame to the government.

It sounds like he wants a kind of exoneration by denying any intentional cover-up.

Phrases like "full cooperation with the government" and "compliance with the government's request" are used repeatedly in the statement.

This appears to be an attempt to break through the standoff between the government and Coupang following the announcement of the company's self-investigation results.

In his apology, Kim mentions "widely spreading misinformation," but Coupang did not specify what it refers to.

Kim Kuk-il / Attorney for U.S. lawsuit
He thinks that if 3,000 pieces of stored member data were fully recovered, class-action lawsuits would be meaningless and compensation would only be required for those affected.

The timing of the statement release two days ahead of a parliamentary hearing was decisive.

Kim expressed his remorse, compensation plans, and a promise to prevent a recurrence.

In a way, the statement sounds like a justification that the company has fulfilled its corporate responsibility.

That is why analysts say it was a highly calculated strategy to neutralize the upcoming hearing.

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