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.
This photo courtesy of the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage (NRICH) shows the footprints of a vertebrate presumed to belong to the Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era, commonly known as the age of dinosaurs about 100 million years ago. The footprints were found on a rock in the southeastern industrial city of Ulsan recently. The NRICH said on June 5, 2018, that 18 such footprints were found in Ulsan on June 1. (Yonhap)
This is a bizarre incident that of course President Duterte of the Philippines was the cause of during his visit with Filipino workers in South Korea:
In this video from PTV taken Sunday, June 3, 2018, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte leans in to kiss a Filipino worker at the podium during a town hall-style meeting with overseas Filipino workers in Seoul, South Korea. PTV VIA AP
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s mouth has landed him in hot water again, this time for kissing a married woman on the lips in front of thousands of his cheering supporters.
Duterte, known for his verbal outbursts and other antics, is being slammed by critics for the kiss, which took place Sunday during a town hall-style meeting with overseas Filipino workers in South Korea. One senator called the act “a despicable display of sexism and grave abuse of authority.”
Duterte sought a kiss from the woman after he called her on stage to give her a copy of a book at the event in Seoul. When Duterte asked if she can explain to her husband that the antic was just a joke, and she said yes, the president leaned in and kissed her as thousands erupted in cheers. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but according to the article the kiss was a joke towards the end of Duterte’s two hour long rambling speech in Seoul to Filipino nationals living in South Korea. The woman that allowed him to kiss her is married to a South Korean man and has two kids. No word on what he thought of all of this.
I don’t think these protesters are going to find too many objections from men in regards to their demands towards Facebook:
A group of female protesters went topless in a rally against Facebook, Saturday, protesting its “discrimination,” based on a policy that bans posts showing women’s breasts but allows men’s naked torsos. Ten women wearing masks and sunglasses carried signs that read, “Why do you delete posts in which I willingly showed my breasts?” and “Set me free from what is virtually a modern corset,” near company headquarters in Gangnam, Seoul.
Soon after photographers and police arrived, the protesters lined up and took off their T-shirts to show a Korean character drawn on their chests to deliver the message “My body is not pornographic material.”
Police forcibly covered the women with blankets despite fierce protests, with some women shouting, “Why are police officers covering us? Why do they keep suppressing us?”
The highly “liberal” move came about a week after Facebook unilaterally deleted an account that posted a message with a photo of a topless woman, slapping the account holder with a one-month suspension. Facebook said the post violated company policy on uploading photos containing naked body parts and sexual acts. “Facebook is used by all age groups, which is why we need to create an environment where a majority of people feel safe,” the company was quoted as saying. “We understand the women’s group and where they are coming from. We must delete the topless photos for now.” [Korea Times]
Below is a video of Korean journalist Byun Hee-jae being perp walked to court for a libel arrest where he releases a statement about his unfair arrest. ROK Heads may remember that Byun is the Korean journalist who has been disputing the origin of the tablet PC that led to the eventual impeachment of former President Park Gun-hye:
What I found ironic about the video was that the JTBC President of news, Son Suk-hee went after Byun for libel because of protests against him.
The Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office requested the warrant as JTBC anchor Sohn Suk-hee and the reporters as well as their families felt threatened.
Byun and his readers held rallies in front of Sohn’s residence and the church Sohn’s wife attended. Byun also warned that Sohn “could be murdered by the forces trying to conceal the truth if he doesn’t reveal the truth himself.” Byun denied the libel charges, claiming he was raising reasonable suspicions. [Korea Herald]
First of all let me state that I do not support anyone protesting in front of someone’s home or church. With that said the Korean left used protests against board members of KBS and MBC news to get them to resign. Labor union members followed the board members and their families to universities, workplaces, churches and other locations they went and harassed them. The harassment became too much and the board members resigned thus allowing the Moon Jae-in administration to appoint left wing board members to seize control of MBC and KBS.
The consolidation of these networks under left wing control eliminated negative coverage of President Moon from two of the biggest media outlets in Korea. The arrest of Byun Hee-jae can arguably be described as yet another attempt to suppress negative media coverage of the Moon administration. By throwing him in jail it will send a message to journalists working at the two major conservative newspapers the Chosun Ilbo and Joong Ang Ilbo to not publish negative stories about the Moon administration or its allies or face being arrested.
"Democracy dies in darkness"https://t.co/9qHjbtRTag This time, it's Im Jong-seok, President Moon's Chief of Staff with the well-documented history of pro-North Korean activism, suing a conservative journalist & commentator for calling him "jusapa," a North Korean sympathizer.
ROK Drop favorite Dr. Tara O has another great guest posting up over at One Free Korea that I recommend everyone read. This time she discusses how the Moon administration has pre-emptively jailed journalist Byun Hee-jae for libel. Byun has been writing about the infamous tablet PC that ultimately led to the impeachment of former President Park. In the article Dr. O provides further information about how dubious the tablet PC was:
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 tablet PC on display in Seoul
Park was impeached, and Moon was elected. Unlike what has been written in English, Park was not impeached for corruption or bribery, but for charges that she gave away the “monopoly of state affairs,” and the tablet PC was seen as the “silver bullet.”
The tablet PC turned out to contain no evidence per the special prosecutors’ own forensic report and was not even Choi’s. The tablet PC also did not contain Korean document editing-capable software. The report, however, was not released to the public until a year later, long after the impeachment had concluded and the public fervor had died down.
Sohn stated afterwards that “even if there was no such thing as the [insignificant] tablet PC . . . , [it wouldn’t have mattered]” implying that Park would have been impeached anyway, although it was his TV program that incited people. JTBC, popular among the youth, has made other erroneous claims and sensationalized reporting on the Sewol Ferry sinking, Theater High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD), and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). [One Free Korea]
I recommend reading the whole article at the link, but a commenter left a link to another article that shows how Byun’s independent journalism site, Media Watch was likely targeted by the Moon administration for libel because of its dogged pursuit of the tablet PC story:
According to Mediawatch.kr, NFS’s forensic report does NOT even mention the name of Choi Soon-sil, much less pinpoint Choi as the user of the tablet PC that JTBC reported was owned and used by Choi.
Na’s testimony should have prompted an avalanche of reports covering this bombshell of a testimony—at least as torrential as those that gushed out of JTBC when it reported that NFS’s forensic report proved JTBC’s claim that Choi was the user of the tablet PC.
Instead, what happened was (1) a deafening silence on the part of JTBC and other MSM outlets, none of which reported this stunning revelation, and (2) the jailing of Byun Hee-jae, the founder of Mediawatch.kr, the only news outlet that has provided an extensive coverage of the testimony.
Mediawatch has doggedly pursued the JTBC’s disingenuous and illegal activities involving the tablet PC. Na’s crucial testimony was covered only by Mediawatch.kr and Jayoo.co.kr, a small internet news outlet which briefly mentioned Na’s testimony in its coverage of the arrest warrant for Byun Hee-jae, and a Youtube channel run by an investigative reporter U Jongchang formerly of Chosun ilbo, who also attended the court proceedings along with Yi Huiu of Mediawatch and Kim Piljun of JTBC. [Tepyung.com]
Once again I recommend reading the whole thing at the link.
Remember that the actions being taken to silence journalists reporting about the dubious tablet PC is being done in concert with the arrest of Druking, the blogger who helped the Moon administration to manipulate online opinion before the election. So he has been effectively silenced as well about disclosing any other actions that may have occurred prior to the election to help President Moon get elected.
Once again I wonder if we will ever see the major US media report on any of this? Probably not they are too busy reporting on more important topics like Roseanne and Samantha Bee.
After losing two major employers the city of Gunsan is facing a population flight as workers look for jobs elsewhere in the country:
A shopping district in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province is deserted on Tuesday
The closure of GM Korea’s plant in Gunsan on Thursday is emptying the southwestern industrial town of its population in a process familiar from GM headquarters’ home of Detroit.
The Gunsan plant employed around 2,000 workers, but only 15 to 20 remain to look after the sprawling 1.2 million sq.m complex.
Song Yong-sun (55) came to work on Wednesday. “I’ve worked here for the last 23 years since the plant was built back in 1995,” he said. “I thought I’d retire at this factory, but now I’m at a loss.”
It is not the only closure turning the city in North Jeolla Province into a ghost town. Last July, a Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard shut its doors after failing to win new orders. [Chosun Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but could you imagine what would happen to Gunsan if the US airbase outside the city ever closed as well?
A protester is taken away from a statue symbolizing Korea’s forced laborers on a sidewalk near the Japanese Consulate in the southeastern port city of Busan on May 31, 2018, as officials from the city’s Dong Ward office load the statue onto a truck, as police disperse protesters from civic groups who attempt to prevent it from being removed. The statue, which represents laborers who were forcibly mobilized by Japan during its 1910-45 colonial domination over the Korean Peninsula, was transported to the state-run National Memorial Museum of Forced Mobilization under Japanese Occupation also in the city. Civic groups want to set it up in front of the Japanese Consulate, but the government says it should be placed elsewhere. (Yonhap)
Another example of how the defamation laws in South Korea are used to silence political opposition:
A conservative commentator has been arrested on libel charges regarding his claim that media reports that led to the ouster of former President Park Geun-hye were manipulated.
The Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for Byun Hee-jae, citing a risk of the suspect destroying evidence.
Byun is accused of spreading false information through his book “The Curse of Sohn Suk-hee” and his online articles, arguing that local cable channel JTBC manipulated the content of a tablet PC and made it look like it was used by Choi Soon-sil, a long-time confidante of the former president.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office filed for the warrant last Friday, accusing Byun of slandering JTBC, its president Sohn Suk-hee and its reporters without reasonable grounds.
The tablet PC was used as critical evidence proving that Choi had interfered in state affairs, leading to Park’s impeachment last year. [KBS World News]
For those that don’t remember the tablet was mysteriously found in an office once rented by Park Geun-hye’s friend Choi Soon-shil who was at the center of the scandal. The finding of the tablet PC was the key news that created the momentum to impeach former President Park Geun-hye.
JTBC only admitted where it found the tablet after changing its story multiple times about the origin of the tablet. If it was in fact found in the old office I always found it interesting how it was conveniently left with such sensitive information on it and no password protection. Additionally the Korean courts did not consider the tablet as evidence during the trial against President Park because it was tampered with.
