This Year Again, Naver and Kakao Are the Targets of the National Assembly Audit

Multiple Standing Committees Including Science and ICT, Industry and Energy Committees Summon 'Nakao'
Calls for Appearance of Founders Lee Hae-jin and Kim Beom-su
National Audit Concerns Over 'Corporate Taming' Distortion
Leniency Towards Global Companies Despite Various Issues

Naver and Kakao, regular attendees of the National Assembly’s audit sessions, are expected to be summoned again this year. The government and ruling party have declared an all-out war against fake news and announced reforms to portal news, leading to growing calls within the National Assembly to summon the founders of Naver and Kakao. However, there are concerns that the audit, which should review a year of government administration, will be distorted into a ‘corporate disciplining’ session where business leaders are grilled over political issues.

Numerous Standing Committees Want Naver and Kakao

The standing committees that have adopted or are discussing summoning the founders, CEOs, and affiliates of Naver and Kakao as witnesses include the Industry, Trade, Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups Committee (SanJaWi), the Health and Welfare Committee (BokJiWi), the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee (GwaBangWi), and the Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock, Food, and Maritime Affairs Committee (NongHaeSuWi). Even considering the social influence of the two companies, there are criticisms that this is excessive compared to other companies.

In particular, within the GwaBangWi, there is a strong call to summon Naver founder Lee Hae-jin, Global Investment Officer (GIO), and Kakao founder Kim Beom-su, Future Initiative Center Director, to the audit session. Although the witness list has not yet been finalized, it is known that there is little difference between the ruling and opposition parties regarding the need to summon these company officials as witnesses in relation to the fake news controversy.

If the founders of both companies are adopted as witnesses again this year, they will have been summoned to the audit session for three consecutive years. Lee Hae-jin, GIO, was summoned in 2017, 2018, as well as in 2021 and 2022. Kim Beom-su, Center Director, has been summoned continuously to the National Assembly except for the years 2018 to 2020. He even set a remarkable record by appearing as a witness in three different standing committees during the 2021 audit period.

Additionally, the BokJiWi has adopted Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon as a witness regarding the issue of personal medical information leaks. In SanJaWi, Kim Joo-kwan, head of Naver Business’s Corporate Independent Company (CIC), was added to the witness list over the issue of counterfeit distribution within Naver Smart Store. Moon Tae-sik, CEO of KakaoVX, is expected to respond to allegations of stealing competitor technology.

Kim Beom-su, head of Kakao Future Initiative Center, and other witnesses are taking the witness oath at the comprehensive audit of the Ministry of Science and ICT and related audit target organizations held by the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee at the National Assembly on the 24th. From the front row left: Center Head Kim Beom-su, Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon, Naver GIO Lee Hae-jin, Kakao CEO Hong Eun-taek.

The National Assembly Is Lenient Toward Controversial Global Big Tech

While domestic companies are losing ground to global big tech firms like Google, the National Assembly of South Korea is said to show a lenient stance when discussing summoning foreign company executives.

Privacy protection issues arising from the spread of artificial intelligence (AI) services are a hot topic worldwide, including domestically. However, there is a lack of related discussions. Also, the fees charged by global platforms such as Google and Apple have been problematic every year. In particular, Apple has been controversial for overcharging in-app payment fees by hundreds of billions of won from domestic app developers, but demands for witness appearances from related company officials are relatively lenient compared to domestic companies.

Last year, Kim Kyung-hoon, president of Google Korea, appeared at the National Assembly’s GwaBangWi audit session but repeatedly responded to lawmakers’ questions with “I will check.” This issue arises because many global big tech companies only seat nominal representatives of their marketing corporations in Korea. Furthermore, even when the National Assembly demands witness appearances, most often the officials cite overseas residence as a reason for non-attendance.

There are talks of summoning representatives from big tech companies like Google and Apple as witnesses again in this year’s audit, but the prevailing expectation is that it will remain a formal inquiry as in previous years.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.