Anchor: Coupang Korea’s interim chief Harold Rogers appeared before police in Seoul on Friday to face questioning over a massive data breach at the company that affected millions of users. Authorities suspect the e-commerce giant tried to cover up the extent of the damage and destroyed evidence during an internal probe into the case.  The questioning session is expected to continue late into the night.
Rosyn Park has more.
 
Report: Harold Rogers arrived at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency at 2 p.m. Friday and briefly told reporters that Coupang would fully cooperate with the authorities.

[Sound bite: Harold Rogers, Coupang interim CEO (English)] 
“Coupang has fully and will continue to fully cooperate with all of the government investigations that are now looking into us. We will also fully cooperate with the police investigation today. Thank you.”

This marks his first appearance, after he failed to comply with two previous police summonses. 

Rogers left South Korea on January 1, a day after attending a National Assembly joint hearing on Coupang’s data breach, and returned to the country last week.

He stands accused of obstructing government and police investigations into the data breach, reported in November, by making a surprise announcement on the findings of an internal probe a month later.

Coupang claimed, after analyzing a laptop belonging to a suspect in the data leak without consulting authorities, that three-thousand accounts were compromised, contrary to the police estimate of more than 30 million.

Rogers could also face perjury charges after he testified in parliament that Coupang conducted the internal probe under instructions from the National Intelligence Service, a claim the state agency has denied.

Investigators are expected to focus their questions on whether evidence was destroyed during the internal probe and how Coupang came to release the findings of its internal investigation.

The case is being watched closely both at home and abroad as Coupang’s U.S. investors have called on Washington to take action over the South Korean government’s handling of the case.
Rosyn Park, KBS World Radio News.