An annual sand sculpture festival is under way on Haeundae beach in the southeastern port city of Busan on May 19, 2018. This 14th edition runs until May 22 under the theme of “Meet the Heros through Sand.” Eleven sand sculptors from six nations, including America, Japan and Taiwan, are to exhibit their works at the festival. (Yonhap)
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.
The dismantling of the nuclear test site in North Korea is not a significant measure because it is easily reversible. The Kim regime at a time of their choosing can easily go and drill more shafts into another mountain if they want to do more nuclear testing. This is just another example of how the Kim regime tries to give up little to nothing in return for aid and the dropping of sanctions:
North Korea on Sunday stressed the importance of its dismantling the Punggye-ri nuclear test site this week and called it a “significant measure” amid reports the North has disregarded South Korea’s roster of journalists planning to cover the dismantlement.
The decommissioning of the site is “a very meaningful and significant measure” undertaken voluntarily by the North to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula based on the spirit of an agreement reached at a historic inter-Korean summit, North Korea’s propaganda website DPRK Today said.
DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name. The leaders of the two Koreas met on April 27 at the truce village of Panmujom on the inter-Korean border.
DPRK Today referred to the May 12 announcement by the North’s foreign ministry that it will hold a ceremony for the dismantling of the nuclear test site between Wednesday and Friday and invite journalists from China, Russia, the United States, Britain and the South to cover it.
On Saturday, another North Korean propaganda website, Uriminzokkiri, carried a commentary in which the North said it does not give the slightest consideration to “a mental patient’s grumble” in the South. “The international community as well as the United States and South Korea is giving a great deal of support to the dismantlement,” it said.
In the commentaries carried by the two propaganda websites, the North lambasted conservative forces in the South, including the main opposition Liberty Korea Party, for underestimating the planned closure of the site. Pyongyang apparently aims to stress the importance of the dismantlement by raising the issue again.
South Korea’s unification ministry handling inter-Korean affairs said Friday the North had not responded to the list of South Korean journalists chosen to attend the ceremony. [Yonhap]
South Korea's Unification Minister confirms what we already knew — that the Ningpo 13 came to SK of their own free will. Now let the SK government do its duty to protect their privacy & safety. 조명균 ˝탈북 여종업원, 자유의사로 한국 왔다˝ https://t.co/L1As6VMm92
Here is the latest on the online opinion rigging scandal in South Korea that has largely been buried by the headlines out of North Korea:
Kim Dong-won, a power blogger accused of manipulating online opinion for partisan purposes, arrives at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, for his second trial hearing on Wednesday. [NEWS1]A power blogger known online as Druking and his associates face allegations that they engaged in a systematic campaign during last year’s presidential election to sway public opinion in favor of President Moon Jae-in by manipulating the comments section on news articles.Text messages obtained exclusively by the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday offer a glimpse into how the group worked and the extent of their ties with the Democratic Party.
The blogger, Kim Dong-won, and his associates used an encrypted messaging app called Telegram to exchange links to articles where they would apparently leave comments and use software to “like” ones that were favorable toward Moon, then a presidential candidate.
In a series of messages dated April 17, 2017, an associate of Kim who allegedly developed the rigging software posted a link to an article about each candidate’s platform. The comment that ended up receiving the most likes on that article was one that criticized the Liberty Korea Party, Moon’s opposition.
“Those LKP people like Lee Myung-bak, Park Geun-hye and Hong Joon-pyo, they always talk about representing ordinary citizens. As if they would.” That comment received 837 likes.
On the same day, another member uploaded a link to an article about Moon’s platform. Comments such as “Young and old alike support Moon Jae-in” and “Go Moon” received the most likes, ranging from 100 to 200. The consistency between the comments of news articles posted to the Telegram chat room suggests the group had a hand in manipulating those comments. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but of interest is that Druking’s group was not only targeting conservatives, but coordinating with Moon Jae-in friends to target liberal rivals such as Ahn Cheol-soo:
In an earlier message dated April 6, 2017, Kim sent out a link to an article about Moon starting his campaign from Gwangju and wrote, “I ask for your support.” In the comments section, Kim had left a post criticizing Ahn Cheol-soo, one of Moon’s rivals.
“At the time, Ahn was rising in ranks and it looked like the election might be Ahn versus Moon,” said a member of the group who requested anonymity, “so we focused on criticizing Ahn in the comments.”
The messages also indicate ties between the group and Kim Kyoung-soo, then a lawmaker and close friend of Moon. “This link to the article was sent by Rep. Kim Kyoung-soo, so we better work on it once more in the morning,” the blogger, Kim Dong-won, wrote in the chat room in July 2017.
The revelation is the latest implicating the Democratic Party in the online manipulation scandal.
I have to wonder if Druking’s group was also used by the Moon campaign to target former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon? Ban withdrew from seeking the ROK presidency due to what he called all the “fake news” allegations brought against him.
Overall though it is pretty clear that outside of conservative media in South Korea, this story is largely going under the radar.
Considering the current attitude towards defectors that the current South Korean government has it will be interesting to see what their response to this is:
Two North Koreans defected to South Korea early on Saturday and were found in the Yellow Sea, Seoul-based news agency Yonhap reported, citing a government source.
Yonhap said that South Korean military spotted two people in a boat near the inter-Korean sea border, one of whom was a military officer, and they showed willingness to defect to the South.
South Korea’s unification ministry was not immediately available for comment.
The defection came after North Korea declined to accept a list of South Korean journalists hoping to observe the closure of its nuclear test site on Friday, raising new questions about the North’s commitment to reducing tensions in the region. [Business Insider]
Kim Yo-jong sure did a good job not showing she was eight months pregnant during her visit to South Korea:
Kim Yo-jong during her visit to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in February (left) and during the North Korea-China summit in Dalian on May 8
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s younger sister gave birth to a baby not long after she visited South Korea in February to attend the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Kim Yo-jong was already about eight months pregnant when she came to Seoul on Feb. 9. She is believed to have given birth before the inter-Korean summit on April 27, intelligence authorities here said.
During the summit the signs of her pregnancy were already gone and she wore tight-fitting clothes.
She also accompanied her brother to a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Dalian on May 8-9.
Intelligence authorities believe she had her first child in 2015. Her husband is thought to be the son of a low-ranking Workers Party official and a classmate of hers at Kim Il-sung University.
The North Korea Strategic Information Service Center, a defector group, has identified him as U In-hak.
Kim Yo-jong is increasingly playing the role of her brother’s chief secretary, but it remains to be seen whether she will be by his side at the North Korea-U.S. summit in Singapore next month. [Chosun Ilbo]
