'Steamed Buns Without Red Bean Filling' Key Witnesses Absent One After Another at Coupang Hearing

Coupang and Daewoo Winia Key Witnesses Absent from National Assembly Hearing
Committee Considers Legal Action over Non-Appearance
Ruling and Opposition Lawmakers Criticize Absences of Kim Beom-seok and Park Young-woo

Key witnesses from Coupang and Daewoo Winia largely failed to appear at the National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee hearing on the 21st. The committee expressed strong regret and decided to consider measures such as filing charges.

Kang Han-seung, CEO of Coupang (left), and Hong Yong-jun, CEO of Coupang Logistics Service (CLS), are attending the Environment and Labor Committee's hearing on "Improving Working Conditions for Coupang Delivery Workers' Night Shifts and Other Labor Issues" held at the National Assembly on the 21st. Photo by Kim Hyun-min

On the morning of the same day, the Environment and Labor Committee held a hearing titled “Hearing on Improving Working Conditions Including Night Work of Coupang Delivery Workers.” The hearing was intended to confirm the current status and issues of Coupang delivery workers' working conditions and to review the responses from the government and Coupang.

Previously, the committee had summoned five witnesses, including Kim Beom-seok, chairman of Coupang Inc. and founder of Coupang, Kang Han-seung, CEO of Coupang, and Son Min-su, CEO of Good Logistics. However, Chairman Kim and CEO Son submitted letters of absence to the National Assembly last week. Chairman Kim cited attendance at the inauguration ceremony of U.S. President Donald Trump held in Washington D.C. on the 20th (local time) as the reason, while CEO Son cited personal reasons. Good Logistics is a courier agency entrusted with delivery operations for Coupang CLS.

Although there is the pretext of the Trump presidential inauguration, both ruling and opposition parties are demanding that proper legal measures be taken against Chairman Kim’s absence from the hearing.

Kim Hyung-dong, the ruling party secretary of the Environment and Labor Committee and a member of the People Power Party, said about Chairman Kim, “This attitude of ignoring the National Assembly is absurd,” and added, “(The committee should) take measures such as filing charges.”

Democratic Party member Kang Deuk-gu said, “Chairman Kim, the actual owner of Coupang, said he would inevitably be absent today due to attending the U.S. presidential inauguration,” and added, “Depending on the results of today’s hearing, I think another hearing should be held. In that sense, Chairman Kim must attend when summoned next time.”

Jung Hye-kyung, a member of the Progressive Party, also criticized, saying, “Is the U.S. president’s inauguration more important than the deaths of Korean workers?” and added, “This is typical of the CEO who built that company on the backs of workers’ deaths.”

On the same day, at the Environment and Labor Committee hearing on Daewoo Winia Group’s “wage arrears,” among the five witnesses summoned, Daewoo Winia Chairman Park Young-woo and his wife Han Yoo-jin submitted letters of absence.

Regarding this, Democratic Party member Park Hong-bae said, “Chairman Park and Mrs. Han submitted letters of absence citing health reasons and being overseas, but their departure date on the immigration certificate is January 12 of this year, and the country they left for is not listed,” and argued, “Considering that the fact that the committee was holding the hearing was reported in the media on January 9, this appears to be a clear case of fleeing abroad.”

He added, “According to the National Assembly Witness and Expert Testimony Act, strict measures or filing charges should be considered depending on the results when key witnesses fail to appear.”

Earlier, Chairman Park was arrested and indicted in March last year on charges of failing to pay 39.8 billion KRW in wages and severance pay to 738 workers of Winia Electronics and Winia Dimchae, and is currently on trial.

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