Naver’s chief operating officer resigns over employee’s suicide

Choi In-hyuk, chief operating officer of Naver, the country’s largest portal operator, on Friday announced that he will step down from his post, apologizing for an employee’s suicide.

Choi is one of co-founders of Naver, which was established in 1999. He is a close ally of Lee Hae-jin, the de facto chief of the internet company.

The executive, however, will maintain his CEO post at Naver Financial.

Naver released a statement regarding the employee’s death after an internal investigation.

“There was some bullying within the organization, and related employees were found to be irresponsible at making efforts to create a healthy organizational culture,” the statement said. “Those employees were penalized for their wrongdoings.”

An employee of Naver who was found dead in May had left a message implying that they had suffered from workplace bullying within the internet giant.

A memo presumed to have been written by the worker was found with the body nearby his apartment. It detailed extreme stress from workplace bullying and included the names of several of his colleagues.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)