The human cost of S Korea’s ultra-convenient overnight deliveries

A week before his son died, Park Mi-suk asked him to quit his job.

The 27-year-old actor had been working the night shift at the warehouse of Coupang, the country’s largest online retailer, for more than a year. He directed pallet carriers with stacks of plastic boxes and cardboard boxes across the large area.

Park says her son lost 15 kilos in that time and often complained about how tired he was.

However, Jang Deok-jun refused to resign. He likened his job to working on a seesaw: If he quit, his co-workers would struggle to continue.

The following week, Park found him unconscious and bent over in the bathroom.

“We got him out and gave him first aid. We took him to the hospital, where they pronounced him dead.”

Jang died of a heart attack. Comwel, the state insurance company that covers health care for workers, said after an investigation that overwork was to blame for his death.

Park wishes he had noticed Jang’s fatigue earlier. “I didn’t pay attention to my son’s words and I lost my son. But I hope others won’t repeat the same mistake.”

Jang died in 2020, but it’s been six years and Park is still struggling to put an end to what he believes was the cause of his death: night deliveries.

Jang died due to increased deliveries during the pandemic, which is often cited to explain his workload.

But the working conditions of warehouse and delivery workers have been the subject of a growing national debate, with unions claiming there continues to be suspicious deaths from overwork.

In hyperconnected South Korea, overnight deliveries have become ubiquitous; Here, orders placed before midnight are guaranteed to be delivered to shoppers by 07:00. This convenience is made possible by the huge workforce that works around the clock, from warehouse workers like Jang to delivery drivers.

Many companies compete to offer fast and cheap deliveries, but the biggest is Coupang.

Founded by a Korean American, this store became synonymous with online shopping in South Korea after 2015 and began offering fresh produce overnight. The company has grown to have an unrivaled warehouse and distribution truck network with nearly 100,000 employees.

However, this sector is increasingly being scrutinized.

Comwel ruled that between 2020 and May 2026, 46 warehouse and delivery workers, including Jang, died of stroke or heart disease, which is considered a work-related death. Jang aside, it’s unclear how many of them worked the night shift.

Comwel did not say how many of these cases were also investigated for the role of overwork; This will only happen if the family requests this in their claim. And not every case is referred to Comwel in the first place, so data can be patchy.

Previously, Comwel’s data suggested that daytime delivery workers died from overwork and accidents at higher rates than those working at night.

But this is being questioned by those who say overnight deliveries are increasing rapidly and there is not yet enough data to fully document their impact. The labor union also argues that the latter is more harmful to health in the long run.

Night work is a possible cause of cancer worldwide. According to the UN’s cancer research agency. “Not only that, but evidence is accumulating that it also increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and mental illnesses,” says Kang Mo-yeol, professor of occupational medicine at the Catholic University of Korea.

South Korea does not limit night working hours, unlike the United Kingdom, where night delivery drivers cannot work more than 10 out of 24 hours.

The Korean delivery workers union has called for a ban on night deliveries by 2025, but Coupang’s drivers union says almost all of its members prefer to work at night.

Some have children, the elderly, or sick family members to care for during the day, and more importantly, they earn better wages.

“I can’t do this for life because it eats away at my body,” says Kim, a subcontracted Coupang driver who does not want to share his real name. But he adds that his monthly salary of around 7 million won ($4,600; £3,430) – almost twice the national average – is worth it.

When the BBC met him at 10pm, he had already loaded his truck for the first deliveries.

He works five to six days a week from 21:00 to 07:00, he explains as he drives through the narrow streets of Incheon city, west of the capital Seoul.

His schedule does not allow for breaks. Every time the truck stops, he runs with the package in his hand. He says nearly all drivers are paid based on the number of packages they deliver, and if they don’t make all deliveries by 7 a.m. they risk losing their “territory” to a competitor.

At first his pregnant wife was afraid he would fall asleep at the wheel. But he insists he’s used to it now and finds it easier to navigate the empty streets of the night.

“We choose to do overnight delivery for the money,” says Kim. According to him, those who say night deliveries should be stopped because it affects his health are ignoring the choice he made.

But Jang’s mother, Park, says men like Kim have become invisible as demand for fast deliveries increases and the industry normalizes.

Park spoke to the BBC outside Coupang’s headquarters in Songpa, Seoul’s office district. Standing alone at the door, the woman told the staff that she had gone out to lunch to remember her son and others like him. Few people paid attention.

Park says one of the challenges is how difficult it is to hold employers accountable in cases like Jang’s.

He said it was up to him to prove that his son died from overwork and that Coupang was obliged to provide the recordings, including security camera footage, to Comwel, but did not provide them to him. After months of confiding in MPs and government agencies, he obtained Jang’s work diary and relevant CCTV footage.

In the months before his death, Jang’s work hours exceeded the bar for how South Korean law defines overwork-related deaths: working an average of 60 hours a week for 12 weeks, then 64 hours a week for four weeks leading up to a heart attack or cerebral palsy, or death.

According to Comwel’s rules, Jang’s hours per night were included in the calculation by 30% more.

As Park continued her fight, local media claimed Coupang’s former privacy officer had a meeting with Chairman Bom Kim.

In the leaked chat, Kim orders the manager to remove the phrase Jang “worked hard” from internal reports: a phrase several employees used to describe Jang’s last shift. Coupang called it a “baseless” claim from a disgruntled former manager.

However, the union accused the company of hiding the evidence and filed a criminal complaint. Police opened an investigation into Coupang in December 2025. Coupang denies the accusation, saying it submitted everything requested and fully cooperated with Comwel’s investigation.

By then, another high-profile case was making headlines. Oh Seung-yong, 34, died when his truck crashed into a pole during delivery. Comwel ruled it was an “occupational death” or that work played a role.

Oh’s sister told parliament that employment records showed he worked more than 11 hours a day, six days a week, mostly at night. According to him, when their father died days earlier, Oh had ordered another four hours before arriving at the hospital. He was working at a logistics company that Coupang had a contract with.

Coupang said it restricts its employees from working less than 52 hours and gives agency drivers a full weekend off every two weeks. However, the union claims this was not implemented by Oh’s employer.

The firm added that it fully covers the cost of medical examinations for direct employees and subcontracted drivers and that “there has never been a single industrial accident fatality, making it the best safety record in the entire global logistics industry.”

Coupang CEO Harold Rogers was summoned to parliament in December 2025 over the deaths of Jang and Oh, and was also summoned to respond to a recent data breach at his firm involving 37.5 million users. The country’s biggest violation to date Earned them a record fine of $410 million.

During the televised hearing, Park demanded that Coupang Chairman Kim be held accountable for his son’s death, while Oh’s sister demanded an apology from Rogers. He said he was “sorry” and offered his “deepest condolences”. He remained silent when Oh’s sister pressed him further.

The investigation into Coupang has also raised important questions for President Lee Jae Myung, who has a disability in his left arm from an old injury he suffered at a factory. It has made reducing workplace injuries and deaths one of its priorities.

Stories like Jang and Oh’s resonate deeply in South Korea, where grueling working hours are not abnormal. It has one of the highest workplace fatality rates among developed countries, a grim statistic that it has been trying to improve for decades.

The government capped working hours per week at 52 and passed a law that would imprison managers for negligence that led to workplace deaths.

To break Coupang’s stranglehold, the ruling party has even proposed easing current restrictions so more retailers can offer overnight deliveries. But the bill has angered unions, activists and Park, who say the issue goes beyond Coupang.

“I’ve been wandering the streets since my son died,” says Park.

He had to close his furniture manufacturing business because of all the time he spent fighting for compensation and answers. He could no longer afford to live in his old house and moved to a rented apartment in Daegu city.

He kept all of Jang’s belongings, including his collection of action figures. They sit in a box in his new apartment.

He’s not ready to say goodbye or give up his fight yet.

Recalling that Jang compared his job to riding a seesaw where he held down one end, he says he looks at it differently now.

He says Jang and tens of thousands of employees like him are on one side for the convenience of consumers on the other.

“I hope we do not become a society where we close our eyes to the sacrifices of others for the sake of a small gain.”