Lotte Duty Free website shut down amid rising Chinese retaliation over THAAD

SEOUL, March 2 (Yonhap) -- Lotte Duty Free, South Korea's largest duty-free operator, said Thursday unidentified hackers temporarily shut down its website in what could be the latest Chinese retaliation over the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system in South Korea. Lotte came under mounting fire from China after its affiliate, Lotte International Co., agreed Tuesday to hand over a golf course in the southeastern rural city of Seongju for the installment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery. South Korea and China have been at loggerheads over the U.S. missile defense system. The unidentified hackers launched a distributed denial-of-service attack that overwhelmed the website of Lotte Duty Free, making its services inaccessible to visitors between noon and 3 p.m., said a Lotte Duty Free official. The official said the company's cyber security experts presumed the attack is traced to a location in China. Lotte Duty Free website has since been up and running, he said. Police confirmed the attack later in the day, saying they have launched an investigation into the case. "It will take time to figure out where the attack is coming from," a police officer said, asking not to be named. The attack is the latest in a series of backlash Lotte has faced in the world's second largest economy following its land swap deal with South Korea's defense ministry for the U.S. missile defense system. According to Lotte, the Chinese authorities on Wednesday conducted a dozen inspections on its retail facilities operating there, of which six cases were regarding hygiene and safety, four related to fire and seven others checking general maintenance. Lotte and its business partners will have to bear any and all credit risks from now on, as banks have partially changed loan requirements, it added. Some of its food affiliates operating in China lost their bids to renew licensing for their online shopping malls, with another retail unit being told to remove a signboard installed on the rooftop of a building. Lotte currently has some 120 establishments, including five department stores and 99 supermarkets running in the foreign country. China has repeatedly pressed South Korea to drop the plan, with its media and angry citizens threatening retaliation against Lotte and other South Korean firms doing business in China. China claims the U.S. missile defense system could hurt its security interests. Still, Seoul and Washington have dismissed such concerns, saying the U.S. missile shield is defensive in nature and focuses on North Korea's missile activities. Lotte, the fifth-largest family-run conglomerate in South Korea, is the one with the highest exposure to China. It first tapped into the world's second-largest economy in 1994, and now has a combined workforce of about 20,000 in 24 subsidiaries raking in some 3 trillion won (US$2.64 billion) in annual sales, according to the group's data. Lotte's duty-free business basked in some 6 trillion won in annual revenue last year, of which 70 percent, or about 4.2 trillion won, came from deep-pocketed Chinese tourists. On Wednesday, Lotte Group said that its Chinese website also went down in an attack caused by a virus planted by hackers, citing the analysis by computer security experts. The website, www.lotte.cn, had been inaccessible to visitors since Tuesday afternoon. Currently, the website posted a message that system maintenance is under way. China's Global Times, which is published by China's official mouthpiece the People's Daily, has recently carried several editorials critical of Lotte over the U.S. missile defense system. The Global Times claimed that mainstream Chinese society has supported sanctions on South Korea and Lotte Group in particular over the U.S. missile defense system. "Sanctioning South Korea is not a question of whether to or not, but of how to do it well," an editorial in the newspaper said on Thursday. "South Korea must pay a heavy price for its erroneous decision to stand with and act as an accomplice to the U.S. in suppressing China's strategic nuclear deterrence capability." entropy@yna.co.kr (END)