Translation resultShinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin will make a public apology over Starbucks Korea\u2019s controversial marketing tied to the May 18 Gwangju Uprising, the company said on May 25. Chung is scheduled to deliver his apology on May 26 at the Chosun Palace Hotel in Seoul\u2019s Gangnam district and will personally present the results of the group\u2019s internal investigation.On May 18, Starbucks Korea ran an event titled \u201cDante\u00b7Tank\u00b7Nasuday\u201d and used the tagline \u201cTank Day,\u201d which critics said recalled the military tanks deployed during the May 18 uprising. The event page also included the phrase \u201cThud on the desk!\u201d \u2014 wording many said evoked the security headquarters\u2019 concealment statement after the 1987 torture death of Park Jong-chul.Chung dismissed Starbucks Korea CEO Son Jeong-hyun the day the backlash began. On May 19 he issued a written apology in his own name, calling the incident \u201cinexcusable.\u201d Shinsegae later sent an envoy to the Gwangju May 18 Memorial Cultural Center, but civic groups refused to meet and instead demanded a full investigation while urging Chung to take direct responsibility.Civic organizations have since filed complaints accusing Chung of insulting and defaming the May 18 democratic movement. Company officials say Chung timed the public apology to coincide with when the investigation\u2019s findings would be ready for release.President Lee Jae-myung also weighed in on May 23, criticizing a separate \u201cSiren Mug\u201d event Starbucks Korea ran on April 16 \u2014 the day commemorating the Sewol ferry disaster \u2014 and calling the action unacceptable. Lee shared a social media post by Rep. Jung Jin-wook, who described using siren imagery on April 16 as a \u201cheinous act.\u201d Shinsegae has countered that the siren event was entirely unrelated to the Sewol tragedy.The apology on the 26th is expected to focus on the \u201cTank Day\u201d controversy and the investigation\u2019s findings; the company has indicated it will not address the Sewol-related \u201cSiren\u201d event as part of this statement. Meanwhile, a boycott of Starbucks that began among progressive groups in response to the \u201cTank Day\u201d marketing has spread into some government and ruling-party circles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Shinsegae Group’s chairman apologizes for Starbucks Korea’s controversial marketing linked to the 5.18 Gwangju Democratization Movement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/cdn-union.tenbizt.com\/contents\/crawler-dev\/thumbnail\/2026\/05\/CP-2023-0094\/thumb-034381e8-40dc-47bd-8a0f-d9c4e55aa740.jpg","footnotes":""},"categories":[278093],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-261855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n