Court suspends $147.74 mil. fine imposed on Coupang for unauthorized user data collection

The Korea Times - Nov 6, 2026

A court on Friday temporarily suspended a 201.1 billion-won ($147.74 million) fine imposed on e-commerce giant Coupang Corp. over unauthorized collection of user data, officials said. Coupang had earlier filed a lawsuit seeking to cancel the penalty surcharges levied by the Personal Information Protection Commission for collecting the online activity records of about 11.17 million users and storing them in its database without consent. At the same time, Coupang also filed for an injunction against the fine. The Seoul Administrative Court granted Coupang's injunction request Friday and suspended the execution of the fine until 30 days after the first verdict in the main lawsuit seeking the cancellation of the surcharges is made, citing concern the penalty could cause irrecoverable damage to the company. Separately, the commission had fined Coupang 423.6 billion won over a data breach affecting more than 37 million users — the largest fine ever handed down by the privacy regulator to a single firm. Coupang filed an injunction request to suspend the fine, but a different panel of the court

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[FRIENDS OF KOREA] An American teenager in Seoul in 1967

I was 13 when our family of 10 (mom, dad and eight kids ranging in age from 1 to 15) arrived at Kimpo Airport in August 1966. We arrived a bit prior to the first volunteers of the Peace Corps K-1, because our school started in early September. The older kids attended Seoul Foreign School (SFS) in Yeonhui-dong, behind Yonsei University. In fact, the founders of our school were some of the same missionaries who founded Yonsei, such as the Underwoods, the Allens and the Avisons. Today, there is a statue to Horace Grant Underwood in front of one of the Yonsei buildings. Being born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, and at our young ages, none of us kids were very familiar with the outside world, so when Dad (Kevin O'Donnell, the first Peace Corps country director for Korea) told us he got a new job and we were going to move to Korea, we thought he said Berea, a Cleveland suburb near the airport, and wondered why in the world would anyone want to move there. He said, "Not Berea — Korea. It's a foreign country over by China and Japan." This got most of us quite excited, but my older sister wa

[FRIENDS OF KOREA] An American teenager in Seoul in 1967

[FRIENDS OF KOREA] How one Peace Corps Volunteer helped deaf Koreans find their voice

As I trudged across Sinchon Rotary and up the steep walkway to Severance Hospital, I kept repeating to myself a phrase from a childhood story about a train engine: “I think I can, I think I can.” It was a bitter cold winter morning in 1969. Today was the day that I was to come to the hospital and show the doctors in the ear, nose and throat section of the hospital that I could, indeed, get a deaf child to speak. Only days earlier, I had arrived in Korea to volunteer for the Peace Corps at age 23. Once it got around that I had training as a speech therapist for the deaf, Peace Corps Korea Director Kevin O'Donnell urged me to pursue it. At the time, Korea had no speech pathology center. George Worth, an American missionary in Korea, introduced me to staff at both Seoul National University (SNU) Hospital and Severance Hospital. Both hospitals were interested in starting a program but wanted to see how it could work, so they told me to come back the next day, when they could bring me a patient. That's how I found myself "auditioning" for a speech and hearing center. I was confident tha

[FRIENDS OF KOREA] How one Peace Corps Volunteer helped deaf Koreans find their voice

[FRIENDS OF KOREA] Two Peace Corps Volunteers' brush with cinematic fame in 1960s Myeong-dong

One evening in Seoul, having nothing better to do, I decided to go out on the town in Myeong-dong with my friend Ron Rezac, a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer. Back in the 1960s, Myeong-dong was a trendy spot for Korean youth, filled with bars, cafes and music venues. After a few hours and a few beers (maybe more than a few), I let it be known that I, strangely, wanted to cap off the evening with some tea. The two of us hightailed it to a nearby "dabang" cafe, walked up some stairs to get in and were met at the door by a man who told us the place was closed and we couldn't come in. "What do you mean we can't come in!" we protested. "We have our rights!" we demanded in our excellent Korean, no doubt causing him to nearly keel over from the fumes of our beer breath. Seemingly at a loss, he let us in, pointing to a table where he wanted us to sit. Once inside, we learned that the reason they didn't want to let us in was that a movie company had taken possession of the dabang for the night to shoot a feature film. They decided on the spot that the scene in the dabang would now include two drunk

[FRIENDS OF KOREA] Two Peace Corps Volunteers' brush with cinematic fame in 1960s Myeong-dong

Children bear cost of adoption delays, advocate says

Children awaiting adoption in Korea are losing precious time to form bonds with permanent families as lengthy reviews and unclear screening standards delay placements, the head of an adoptive families’ advocacy group said. In an interview with The Korea Times after a press conference Tuesday outside the Board of Audit and Inspection in central Seoul, Oh Chang-hwa, head of the National Adoptive Family Federation, called for faster adoption matching and transparent assessment standards. “Children are there and parents are there. But they cannot meet,” he said. His organizations and six other civic groups submitted a petition asking the state auditor to inspect the screening and matching procedures under the new adoption system, which took effect on July 19, 2025, shifting responsibility for adoption procedures from private agencies to the central and local governments. Their complaints center on administrative delays, allegedly inconsistent screening and excessive collection of sensitive family information. According to figures submitted to the National Assembly and cited by the fede

Children bear cost of adoption delays, advocate says

Documentary spotlights Peace Corps Volunteer's role in Gwangju Uprising

The 1980 Gwangju Uprising produced a great many memorable photos, not least of which was one of a young man with blonde hair helping carry a man on a stretcher through the streets. The identity of this foreigner remained a mystery for decades, but as U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) who were there began publishing their memoirs, his identity and role in the uprising gradually came into focus. The person in the photo was a PCV named Tim Warnberg, who had arrived in Korea in 1978 to work as a health volunteer at Gwangju Christian Hospital. Those who knew him before his arrival in Korea remember him as someone whose character and concern for others help explain his actions in 1980. Warnberg was from Brainerd, Minnesota, where his father was the town’s longest-serving sheriff. His mother was, as his sister Roxanne Wilson remembers, “devoted to caring for others” and creating “a home that was warm and inviting to neighbors, friends and persons in need.” As his closest childhood friend, Keevie Fairbanks, put it, “Tim was the best of both of his parents.” Robert Grotjohn, who at

Documentary spotlights Peace Corps Volunteer's role in Gwangju Uprising

Remembering Peace Corps' 15 years in Korea

It may come as a shock to many these days that the Peace Corps once had a mission in Korea. The U.S. volunteer agency sent more than 2,000 young volunteers to Korea between 1966 and 1981 in 51 waves, from K-1 to K-51. The country they arrived in was very different from the advanced nation Korea has grown to become. Coming out of the 1910-45 Japanese occupation and 1950-53 Korean War, Korea was for decades one of the poorest nations in the world. In the mid-1960s, when Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) began arriving, Korea's hills were barren, and the gutters were filled with human waste. The authoritarian government maintained a strict curfew, barring people from the streets from midnight to 4 a.m. “My first impression was ‘My god, what have I got myself into?’” Ed Klein (K-1) said in 2016. “It was the way it was,” David McCann (K-1) said in 2019, “and that didn't strike me as strange.” U.S. President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps in 1961 with an executive order. It was designed to serve three main goals: helping various countries meet their need for trained me

Remembering Peace Corps' 15 years in Korea

Foreign residents' first hurdle is housing. Enkostay says it can clear it.

For many foreign residents, the first few weeks in Seoul can feel almost effortless. The subway works. Convenience stores are everywhere, and there is always another café, restaurant or corner of the city to discover. Then the paperwork begins. An appointment for a residence card. A landlord asking for a deposit that can run into the tens of millions of won. Almost overnight, the experience shifts from exploring Korea to deciphering it. For years, newcomers have leaned on Facebook groups for answers, and learned to sift through thousands of unverified listings and contradictory advice. Now they’re asking a blunter question, often on Reddit: Is this website legit? That was the question Huy Kim Nguyen, better known online as Kim Ninja, kept seeing about Enkostay, a rental platform for foreign residents. Nguyen came to Korea five years ago and began documenting the realities of living in Korea while working as a software developer. His YouTube videos explaining how Enkostay works went viral, drawing more than a million views. "You can't always trust the internet with a pretty website these

Foreign residents' first hurdle is housing. Enkostay says it can clear it.

President's new YouTube show unlikely to get message across as intended

Political analysts expressed skepticism about President Lee Jae Myung’s new YouTube talk show, intended to strengthen communication with the public, saying it is unlikely to attract broader interest or win greater public support. The program, President’s Y, debuted Thursday evening as a prerecorded one-on-one interview. The show aimed to offer more room to explain Lee’s views than posts on X, excerpts in news reports or YouTube channels run by Cheong Wa Dae. Analysts said the first episode drew relatively few views despite the curiosity surrounding its debut, and that the key to better communication and higher approval ratings is not the platform or format, but rather more measured language. “Considering the curiosity that comes with a launch, it is difficult to call that particularly high,” a political pundit said on condition of anonymity, referring to the episode’s roughly 300,000 views in the 12 hours after its 9 p.m. release on Thursday. The count remained in the 350,000 range as of 3:30 p.m. Friday. “It does not appear to have been especially successful in attracting a

President's new YouTube show unlikely to get message across as intended

Inside look at 4-year mission behind Captain Q's unexpected resurgence

Behind the unexpected resurgence of Captain Q, which returned to the liquor market after an 11-year hiatus, was one man's four-year mission to reinvent the brand. His goal was to make the inexpensive rum-based spirit — once notorious for hangovers so severe that drinkers joked it took two days to recover — appealing to younger consumers without the baggage of its past. Priced at less than 10,000 won ($7.20), Captain Q has returned to public notice with a viral advertising campaign featuring comedian Lee Sun-min that paid homage to 1980s commercials. The limited-edition release of 12,000 sets sold out completely within a day of shipment. Even the Scottish supplier of the rum base was reportedly surprised, remarking, "Korea is such a dynamic market." Kim Dong-jun, a spirits manager on Lotte Chilsung Beverage's soju and spirits brand management team, had been preparing for Captain Q's revival since 2022. He can finally breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that four years of work had not gone to waste. At the company's headquarters in Songpa District in Seoul on Tuesday, Kim looked as flu

Inside look at 4-year mission behind Captain Q's unexpected resurgence

Young entrepreneurs test ideas in Seoul neighborhoods

"Come in, try it out and leave us some feedback." At a pop-up store in Ikseon-dong, Jongno District, Seoul, on Oct. 30, prototypes showcasing the ideas of 19 young startup teams caught visitors' attention. Each team had set up an interactive space to present its products and services, ranging from Korean-style pork cutlets served with green onion kimchi and soybean paste stew to lightweight hiking and camping backpacks made with functional fabrics, artificial intelligence-powered fortune-telling services and art studios. Visitors tried out the offerings, listened to explanations from the entrepreneurs and suggested areas for improvement. About 850 people visited the event that day. The pop-up store served as a real-world testing ground for a Seoul Metropolitan Government initiative linking youth entrepreneurship with the revitalization of neighborhood commercial districts. A total of 150 teams applied for the fifth edition of the Local Entrepreneur Development Program, known as "Local in Seoul," this year, with 24 ultimately selected. Since June, the teams have been preparing to launch

Young entrepreneurs test ideas in Seoul neighborhoods

Arms review committee approves plan for nuclear-powered submarine project

A review committee of the state arms agency on Friday passed the basic plan for South Korea's nuclear-powered submarine program, officials said, moving forward with efforts to build the core naval asset under an agreement with the United States. The decision-making body under the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) approved the plan for the Jang Bogo N project during a regular meeting earlier in the day, DAPA said in a release. The project will formally be launched in 2027. Seoul unveiled the Jang Bogo N project in May, aiming to domestically develop and build nuclear-propelled, conventionally armed attack submarines, with the first vessel to be launched in the mid-2030s and fielded after the late 2030s. The project has been exempted from a preliminary feasibility study usually required for arms acquisitions, allowing the government to accelerate its push for the construction. Under procurement regulations, the defense minister or DAPA chief can request an exemption from the feasibility study for highly classified projects. The exemption for the Jang Bogo N program was grant

Arms review committee approves plan for nuclear-powered submarine project

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