South Korea Pledges Support for Naver Amid Japan’s Regulatory Pressure

The South Korean government pledged to protect Naver, the operator of the popular chat app Line, after Japanese regulators advised LY Corp. to reduce its reliance on the Korean tech giant. 

LY Corp., a joint venture between Naver and Japan’s SoftBank, faced scrutiny following a major security breach at Naver’s cloud computing servers last year, which involved more than 300,000 records, including information of Line users.

Japanese authorities advised LY to improve its governance and decrease its dependence on Naver. This raised concerns in South Korea, with some Korean politicians accusing Japan of pressuring Naver to reduce its 50% stake in LY. 

Kang Dohyun, South Korea’s second vice technology minister, confirmed that Japan’s Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry did not explicitly require Naver to cut its stake. However, he expressed regret that Japan’s instructions were being perceived as pressure against Naver.

Kang reiterated the government’s commitment to ensuring fair treatment for South Korean companies and emphasized that Seoul would respond firmly to any discrimination.
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