The data breach at Coupang, South Korea's largest online retailer, has evolved from a corporate issue into a diplomatic crisis affecting US-South Korea relations. In November, Coupang disclosed that a former employee had stolen an internal security key, compromising data from 33.7 million users. This incident led to a government crackdown, including police raids and parliamentary hearings. The strong response from South Korea has reportedly strained relations with the Trump administration, which has linked high-level diplomatic talks to the legal treatment of Coupang's CEO, Bom Kim. South Korea's foreign ministry has insisted that security discussions should proceed independently of the Coupang matter, but the US has signaled that it will not engage in key diplomatic consultations without guarantees regarding Kim's legal status. This diplomatic fallout is compounded by other tensions, such as an immigration raid at a South Korean battery plant in Georgia and restrictions on intelligence sharing. The situation illustrates the growing complexities in the US-South Korea alliance, as economic and security issues increasingly intertwine under the current administration.