ItalyA report by the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee detailed a covert operation led by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) to recover stolen data from a former employee of South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang. The incident occurred in December 2025 after the employee allegedly took confidential information to China. The NIS coordinated a secret mission involving encrypted communications, direct contact with the employee, and instructions on how to approach him. The goal was to retrieve four hard drives, a desktop computer, a graphics card, and especially a laptop reportedly thrown into a river in Shanghai. When legal representatives of Coupang managed to obtain most of the devices through a law firm in Shanghai, the NIS could not directly intervene due to its status as a foreign intelligence agency. Instead, Coupang was asked to send a team of divers to recover the laptop from the river and deliver it to agents at a surveillance-free location. The recovered materials were then transferred to the South Korean embassy and returned to Seoul via diplomatic luggage.
Bias read (Center): The article presents a factual account of a covert intelligence operation conducted by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) to recover stolen corporate data. While the operation involves national security concerns, the reporting does not take an overtly ideological stance. It provides a
