Seoul: President Lee Jae Myung on Friday called on the government to toughen penalties for corporate wrongdoings in leaks of personal information, after e-commerce giant Coupang reported a massive data breach that affected nearly two-thirds of the nation's population.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the data breach at Coupang was the latest in a series of leaks of personal information at major companies, and Lee said such incidents have been repeated because "economic sanctions are too weak." Lee made the remarks at a policy briefing by the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), a state privacy regulator.

Under current law, the government can impose a fine of up to 3 percent of a company's three-year average sales if the company violates rules on protection of personal information. Lee suggested that the government needs to calculate a fine based on the year with the highest sales over the three years, instead of on the average three-year revenue.

"Companies should be making real efforts to avoid violations and investing enough to prevent them, but we just don't see that happening," Lee said during the briefing. "Companies need to understand that if they break the regulations and harm the public, they will face massive economic penalties serious enough to make them think, 'This could put the company out of business,'" he added.