Seoul opposes Tokyo's pressure on Naver to reduce stake in Line

The Korean government opposes the Japanese government's directive urging Naver to reduce its stake in Line, the No.1 messenger app in Japan.

"The Korean government is firmly in the position that there should be no discriminatory measures against our companies," an official of Korea's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

"We will check Naver's position on the case and communicate with the Japanese side if necessary."

The remark comes in response to administrative guidance issued twice by the Japanese government for Naver to reduce its influence over Line Yahoo and review capital ties. The Japanese government blamed its dependency on Naver for a massive data leak in October that exposed around 510,000 pieces of personal information about Line users, business partners, employees and other personnel through its subcontractor, Naver Cloud.

Line Yahoo is 64.5 percent owned by A Holdings, a 50:50 joint venture between Naver and Japan's SoftBank.

Multiple Japanese local media outlets reported that Software is in talks with Naver to purchase its stake in A Holdings.

First launched in Japan in 2011, Line is the most used messenger in Japan with some 96 million monthly active users in the country. The number of uses exceeds 200 million when other nations are included.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]