Former U.S. National Security Advisor O'Brien [Photo=Yonhap News]

Robert O'Brien, who served as National Security Advisor during the first Trump administration, criticized the South Korean National Assembly's regulatory moves against Coupang, which is facing controversy over a massive customer personal information leak.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on the 23rd (local time), O'Brien wrote, "South Korea's aggressive targeting of Coupang will set the stage for further discriminatory actions by the Korea Fair Trade Commission and broader regulatory barriers against American companies."

He continued, "President Donald Trump has worked to rebalance trade relations with South Korea. It would be very unfortunate if South Korea hinders those efforts by targeting American tech companies," he argued.

He added, "A strong, coordinated U.S. response is key to ensuring American companies are treated fairly and to maintaining strategic balance against the growing influence of China in this sector." This can be read as implicitly urging the Trump administration to pay attention and respond.

In his post, former advisor O'Brien did not mention Coupang's responsibility for the personal information leak, but rather attempted to frame it as "American companies receiving unfair treatment in South Korea."

Coupang can be legally considered an American company because its parent company, Coupang Inc., which is listed in the U.S., owns 100% of the shares of its South Korean subsidiary.

Coupang Inc., Coupang's parent company, donated $1 million (approximately 1.48 billion won) to President Trump's second inauguration ceremony in January and spent a total of $10.39 million (approximately 15.4 billion won) on lobbying activities in the U.S. over the past five years.

Previously, on the 29th of last month, Coupang announced that information from approximately 33.7 million customer accounts had been leaked, stating that personal information such as names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, and some order details were compromised.