Seoul: Coupang Inc. founder Kim Bom-suk has announced that he will not attend a parliamentary hearing this week concerning a massive data breach that affected approximately 34 million individuals, lawmakers revealed on Sunday. Kim, who serves as the chair of Coupang's board, submitted a statement explaining his non-appearance for the hearing scheduled for Wednesday, as communicated by Democratic Party (DP) lawmakers from the parliamentary science, ICT, broadcasting, and communications committee.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Park Dae-jun and Kang Han-seung, former CEOs of the U.S.-listed company's Korean unit, also informed the lawmakers of their decision not to attend the hearing. The decision follows Coupang's recent disclosure that the personal information of 33.7 million customers, including names, phone numbers, email addresses, and delivery details, had been compromised. This incident has prompted scrutiny from lawmakers regarding the company's data protection practices.

The DP lawmakers expressed their dissatisfaction with Coupang's leadership, stating, "Those responsible at Coupang have shunned the public and the National Assembly and chose to run away." They also vowed to advocate for new legislation that would hold executives of large platform companies accountable and prevent them from evading responsibility in similar situations.

Rep. Choi Min-hee, who heads the parliamentary science committee, shared the non-appearance statements from Kim and the former CEOs on her Facebook page. In his statement, Kim cited official business commitments as the CEO of a global company as the reason for his inability to attend the hearing.