A special prosecutor team led by Huh Ik-bum has demanded a five-year prison term for South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo over his alleged involvement in an online opinion rigging scandal.
At the final hearing on Friday, the team said Kim acted like a deviant politician by mobilizing a private group that engages in illegal acts and using public posts as bargaining chips for elections.
Kim, a close aide to President Moon Jae-in, is accused of approving a blogger and his associates’ development of a computer program called “King Crab,” which could be used to manipulate the number of likes for online comments.
The special counsel team believes Kim colluded with the blogger known as “druking” to manipulate comments on news articles with the program to benefit the ruling Democratic Party, then the opposition party, in the run-up to last year’s presidential election.
This news just continues to justify my belief that the special counsel over the Druking scandal was put together as part of the cover up to protect Kim Kyoung-soo:
Special counsel Huh Ik-bum speaks during a press briefing over the Druking case on July 20, 2018. (Yonhap)
Special prosecutors probing a high-profile political scandal involving an influential blogger and a prominent governor said Wednesday it will not seek to extend their designated term and plans to wrap up the investigation this Saturday.
The team of 87 investigators, led by special counsel Huh Ik-bum, was launched on June 27 after the National Assembly passed a bill on the independent probe into an alleged massive rigging of online news comments.
South Gyeongsang Province Gov. Kim Kyoung-soo, then a ruling Democratic Party lawmaker, allegedly conspired with an influential power blogger, known by his nickname Druking, into manipulating comments in online news articles to benefit the DP, between October 2016 and early this year.
Under the law regarding a special prosecution, the special counsel is given an initial two-month term to dig into the case and can seek an additional 30-day term if deemed necessary.
In Wednesday’s press briefing, the special prosecution said it will deliver its official result of the opinion rigging probe next Monday.
Huh has faced criticism that his team is not doing enough to crack the case. Critics have questioned the independence of the special prosecution, saying the fact that the probe is targeting Gov. Kim, a potential presidential candidate who is known for his close ties to President Moon Jae-in.
Huh sought an arrest warrant for Kim earlier this month. The court turned it down citing a lack of reasons for it.
The suicide of Rep. Roh Hoe-chan, a veteran politician from a minor progressive party, over his alleged connection to Druking, is also seen as another factor that has affected the probe. [Yonhap]
With the elimination of the special counsel, now Governor Kim and his left wing political defenders can go around on the now largely left-wing controlled media and claim the special counsel found nothing and Kim has been cleared. The media will probably not point out though that the Special Counsel could not even arrest low level people for questioning much less try to question Governor Kim. The media also likely won’t mention that the Special Counsel was able to only search the office of Governor Kim that had been open for one month. I would not be surprised if the office was opened specifically for the Special Counsel to search and find nothing.
Gov. Kim Kyoung-soo
For those that don’t know Kim Kyoung-soo is a trusted friend and confidant of ROK President Moon Jae-in. The power blogger called Druking alleges that Kim directed his team’s online opinion rigging operation to turn public opinion against liberal rival Ahn Cheol-soo and then conservative rivals during the last presidential election. When Druking’s team did not receive the political payback they had been promised they turned on Kim Kyoung-soo and began targeting President Moon with their opinion rigging software. Once they turned on Moon that is when authorities arrested them, not when they were targeting conservatives.
I have always maintained that Kim Kyoung-soo and others from the Moon administration involved in this scandal would never be held accountable. You can say what you want about the Korean left, but they know how the circle the wagons and protect their own. This is just more evidence of this.
Does anyone think this will be a fair and transparent investigation or is the fix in?:
Special counsel Huh Ik-bum (Yonhap)
President Moon Jae-in appointed a special counsel Thursday to investigate a opinion rigging scandal that involves one of his confidants.
Moon named prosecutor-turned-lawyer Huh Ik-Bum as a special prosecutor, his office Cheong Wa Dae said.
The appointment came three days after Huh was named one of two candidates by opposition parties as required by the law on the special counsel.
“President Moon will present special counsel Huh with a certificate of appointment on Friday,” Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told a press briefing. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but the special counsel has 90 days to report their findings.
The Korean ruling political party has been able to turn the Druking online opinion rigging scandal with clear links to the Moon administration, back on conservatives by claiming they rigged comments during the 2007 Presidential election:
Kim Dong-won, aka “Druking”
Seoul police are looking into suspicions that the main opposition party engaged in massive online opinion rigging during elections, including the 2007 presidential vote.
A newspaper reported Wednesday that the Liberty Korea Party (LKP) used a computer program to spread favorable news and jack up “likes” on comments on Internet sites from 2006 to 2014. At those times, the party’s name was first the Grand National Party and then the Saenuri Party.
The report cited the party campaign office’s chat records that it secured from an insider.
“We are checking the authenticity of the report,” the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said.
The agency has probed a similar online manipulation scheme led by an arrested blogger linked to the ruling Democratic Party (DP).
The blogger known as Druking used the same software. In a recent letter sent to a news outlet, he said that he acquired the program from a campaign official of the Grand National Party. It was used during the 2007 presidential election, he added. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but does anyone find it quite convenient that after all these weeks Druking mentioned nothing to the media about getting the program from the GNP, but now all the sudden he does? The timing is even more convenient considering that local elections and parliamentary by-elections are slated for June 13.
The power blogger known as “Druking” has now confessed that Democratic Party representative and close friend to President Moon Jae-in approved his plan to manipulate online opinion during the last ROK Presidential election:
Kim Dong-won
The power blogger known as Druking claimed that former Democratic Party Rep. Kim Kyoung-soo approved the use of software to rig “likes” on political comments online to help Moon Jae-in in the presidential campaign of 2017.
“In September 2016, when Kim Kyoung-soo visited my office in Paju, I told him how the winning parties in the 2007 and 2012 presidential elections used a certain program online to manipulate public opinion,” the blogger, a 49-year-old man named Kim Dong-won, wrote in a letter dated Thursday, according to the Chosun Ilbo on Friday. “So in October of that year, I briefed Rep. Kim about the so-called ‘King Crab’ program in my office.”
Druking is charged with obstruction of business, a punishable crime in Korea. Three of his associates face the same charge over their use of software to manipulate comments on Naver, a portal that many Koreans use to access news.
Prosecutors said the software allowed the group to automatically log in and out of individual members’ accounts and change their IP addresses. The group said it used the Amazon Web Services platform to develop the software.
“Kim was briefed about the program and confirmed in person how the program works,” the blogger wrote. “I told him, ‘If we do not use the program we will lose in the election again. If something goes wrong, I will take responsibility and go to jail. But we cannot do this without your consent or agreement. So will you give your consent, even just by a nod, if you cannot say anything?’
“And Kim nodded, so I told him, ‘We will go ahead with this plan,’” the blogger wrote. “Leaving the office, Kim said, ‘Why did you have to show me this? You should have just carried it out as you saw fit.’ And I told him, ‘We will take care of it as if you had not seen it.’” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Here is what caused the falling out between Druking’s group and the Democrat Party:
The blogger wrote, “We tried really hard to help Moon during the election so we asked Kim around February [2017] to include two of our associates in the election policy committee of the Democratic Party, and one did make it on, but the other did not.
“So after the election we asked Kim if the associate could be recommended as the next Korean ambassador to Japan, but Kim said he couldn’t make the recommendation,” the blogger wrote. “Then he called me on Dec. 28, 2017, to ask, ‘What do you think about the job as consul general in Sendai?’
“Sendai was a place that diplomats did not like to go because it’s close to Fukushima, where they had the nuclear disaster,” the blogger wrote. “I felt like Kim was making a fool of me. So I denied the offer.”
You can read more at the link, because there was some bribery allegedly involved as well. Since Druking turned on President Moon to use his software to attack him I fully expect he will feel the full weight of the ROK justice system. For Representative Kim Kyoung-soo I would be surprised if anything happens to him since I doubt the Moon administration will put any pressure on prosecutors to investigate him.
ROK Drop favorite Professor B.R. Myers has a new article posted about the intense propaganda campaign launched by the Korean left to first impeach President Park and now is currently being used to cover up for ruling party scandals and setting conditions for implementation of the Korean confederation:
Professor B.R. Myers
Druking, Burning Sun, Mokpo real estate, SillaJen, the Ulsan mayoral race, Pak Won-soon, Optimus, Yun Mi-hyang, Lime, Cho Kuk — Justice Minister Cho Kuk: More interesting than any of the recent scandals these keywords stand for has been the nationalist left’s unyielding defense of the pols and officials involved. We even saw self-described feminists jeer the frightened woman who had complained of the Seoul mayor’s sexual advances. Whistle-blowers and investigators are denounced as “pro-Japanese” elements working for the opposition, which is in fact the most docile and insignificant one this country has seen since the early 1980s.
The temptation now, to which my conservative acquaintances have succumbed with a certain relief, is to write off the ruling camp as a network of insider traders and real-estate speculators: old-school pols who rig elections, demote prosecutors, and imprison journalists for no other reason than to keep outsiders from the trough. But corruption and conviction are not the antitheses they are made out to be. One can hardly expect people who question the very legitimacy of the South Korean state to fret overmuch about breaking its laws. This is not to imply that the parliamentary right is more honest.
Granted, the cascade of scandals has given the lie to the ruling camp’s vaunted commitment to reform. The general non-response, meanwhile, has belied the public’s commitment to it, something the foreign press corps — “big-mouthed and clueless,” to borrow what Peter Handke once said of the Spiegel — took at face value in 2016. None of the alleged misconduct, which uncannily replicates or amplifies that for which Park and her people were convicted, has aroused much indignation from the man in the street. Even considering that voters are more tolerant of abuses of power when public expenditures are rising sharply (Melo and Pereira, 2015), as they have been here since 2017, we must acknowledge that the so-called Candlelight Revolution was a more top-down affair than we were led to believe.
This should have been obvious to us from the demonstrators’ struggle to give coherent reasons for their festive-seeming “outrage” on the nightly news. They weren’t really mad as hell, but they believed they should be, thanks to an intense propaganda campaign orchestrated by the politico-media complex.
I highly recommend reading the whole thing at the link. Professor Myers goes on to talk about the propaganda efforts going on now to describe the Korean left’s Confederation idea as being like the European Union. The propaganda effort is also trying to bury historical memory of North Korea in order to set Clinton era like conditions for a deal to be struck with the U.S. All this is going on with little notice or care from the media or the so called North Korea policy experts who Myers is most critical of in his article.
Despite President Moon’s overall great handling of the coronavirus pandemic that saw his popularity rise to 70% in April, his support has sharply dropped because of the growing scandals:
One of the things that has set President Moon Jae-in apart from his predecessors is that his popularity rating has enjoyed a stable level throughout his presidency since May 2017.
But latest surveys reflect a noticeable loss of public confidence in President Moon and his administration in the past few weeks due to some glaring policy missteps, including those related to real estate.
However, the increased disappointment is not with the missteps themselves but the “two-faced” attitude and discordance between words and actions by some of the President’s key aides and ranking government officials. The disappointment stems from the fact that the Moon administration was launched under the banner of “fairness and justice.”
This hypocrisy was highlighted by the recent controversy surrounding chief of staff Noh Young-min, who belatedly followed his own recommendation he had made late last year for senior presidential aides owning more than one home to sell off all properties other than their main residence. The recommendation came in response to rising public discontent toward the government’s failure to contain soaring housing prices.
When Cheong Wa Dae announced earlier this month that the chief of staff would sell one of his two homes, the public became even more angry because the decision to sell a less lucrative apartment in Cheongju, South Chungcheong Province, was seen as a move to retain a more valuable property in Seoul’s Seocho-gu. Yoon Seong-won, presidential secretary for land, infrastructure and transport, was criticized for a similar move, trying to keep a more expensive property in southern Seoul instead of a house in Sejong City, the nation’s as-yet underdeveloped administrative capital.
With that all said 44% for a Korean President is still not a horrible number and well above his all time low of 39% that occurred during the Cho Kuk Scandal. However, if the trend continues he could find himself back at 39% very soon.
Remember when the election law for proportional representation seats was passed to help the Korean left remain in power in the parliament. Well here is their next phase in ensuring they maintain power, make left wing satellite political parties to increase proportional representation seats for the Korean left:
Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang, center, bangs the gavel to announce that the National Assembly approved the election revision bill on December 28th. Moon made his way to his seat despite a physical blockage by the main opposition Liberty Korea Party lawmakers.
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has decided to take part in an initiative to form a liberal satellite political party designed to win more proportional representation seats in the April 15 general election. In a vote of all party members conducted last week, about 241,000 members cast ballots and 74 percent supported the move. (……..)
DPK Chairman Lee Hae-chan defended the party’s decision, saying it was an inevitable choice to stop the conservative opposition United Future Party (UFP) from becoming the largest party and blocking reform measures pushed by the Moon Jae-in administration.
You can read more at the link, but it is very clear that the Korean left will use every trick legal or illegalto win the parliamentary elections next month.
It appears that China’s “50 Cent Army” has turned its attention on South Korea to help manipulate online public opinion to be favorable towards President Moon:
On February 27, 2020, an online post titled “Chinagate” emerged, causing a controversy. A self-described Joseonjok (ethnic Korean who migrated to Northeast China prior to 1945 and their descendants) Chinese claimed that “Joseonjok Chinese and Chinese students in South Korea are using social network services to manipulate public opinion on online communities and portals using online comments and other methods” and that “the Moon Jae-in administration and the ruling party are controlled by China.” The person also posted, “Most of the people who are mobilized for this systematic manipulation of public opinion are [Chinese] university students studying in South Korea, and all of the top-ranked comments on Naver and comments on women’s cafes go through our hands.” [Note: Naver is a popular portal in South Korea.]
Another post appeared later the same day, claiming “Don’t think it’s Koreans that drive online public opinion” and “as soon as ‘the impeachment of Moon Jae-in’ appeared as the Blue House petition, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which considers President Moon as part of it, became active and led 500,000 to support the ‘I support President Moon Jae-in’ petition in a period of two days.”
These posts were claims, but what followed caused a stir.
I highly recommend reading the whole article at the link by Dr. Tara O. Remember the Moon administration is no stranger to manipulating online public opinion as demonstrated by the Druking Scandal prior to the last presidential election.
If politicians in the U.S. want to know what real election meddling looks like they should read this article from ROK Drop favorite Dr. Tara O about the alleged meddling going on in South Korean elections by the Blue House:
Moon Jae-in supporting then-candidate Baek Won-woo in Baek’s election campaign in 2016
A former Blue House inspector Baek Jae-young (백재영) was found dead on December 1, 2019 just hours prior to the time he was due to appear at the prosecutor’s office to answer questions. He was a key witness in the ongoing investigation about the alleged Blue House manipulation of the election in Ulsan Metropolitan City in 2018.
Baek Jae-young, a prosecutor, was seconded to the Blue House, and worked under Baek Won-woo (백원우) (the same last name, but not related) during the time when the Blue House is suspected of ordering an investigation against the Ulsan mayor Kim Gi-Hyeon (김기현), Liberty Korea Party, during Kim’s mayoral election campaign in 2018. The grounds for this investigation appear questionable, and while Kim Gi-Hyeon was ultimately found innocent, the investigation appears to have prejudiced voters against Kim, who was ahead in the polls prior to the investigation, and played a role in his defeat. Other conservative mayoral candidates in the province faced similar criminal investigations.
You can read more at the link, but this alleged election interference in Ulsan is just the latest example of how the Korean left interferes in election. ROK Heads may remember the Druking Scandal to rig online opinion for Moon in the last ROK Presidential election. President Moon’s close friend was sentenced to jail for two years and then quickly let out.
This is on top of the irregularities involving the tablet computer that led to the impeachment of former ROK President Park Geun-hye that caused the last presidential election to occur.
