Japan and South Korea Are Fighting Over an App at a Tense Time NYT: Technology River Akira Davis 24 June 2024 at 00:01 SoftBank and Naver helped bridge geopolitical relations with a joint venture to own the operator of the messaging app Line, but now the partnership is fraying. ยฉ Lee Jae-Won/AFLO/Shutterstock, Takaaki Iwabu/BloombergDiplomats and international relations experts fear that a rift over the ownership of a Naver-SoftBank venture could again put stress on ties between Japan and South Korea.