Kwon Yang-sook, wife of late former President Roh Moo-hyun, votes at a polling station in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, on June 13, 2018. (Yonhap)
When I first read this article I was wondering if it was a Duffel Blog entry, but the person who leaked Top Secret information really is named Reality Winner:
Accused NSA leaker Reality Winner.
The alleged leaker accused of feeding a classified report to an online news site has a colorful history on social media that lays bare her political leanings as an environmentalist who wanted to “resist” President Trump.
Reality Winner, 25, is a contractor with Pluribus International Corporation assigned to a federal facility in Georgia, where she allegedly leaked a classified intelligence report containing “Top Secret Level” information. The report, according to the Department of Justice, contained classified defense information from an intelligence community agency.
While the DOJ did not say which site published the information, the charges were announced just as The Intercept published details of a National Security Agency report on Russian hacking efforts during the 2016 presidential election.
According to the Justice Department, Winner admitted to printing a classified intelligence document despite not having a “need to know,” and with knowledge the report was classified. Winner further admitted removing the report from her office space and mailing it to the news outlet, according to the criminal complaint. [Fox News]
You can read more at the link, but it appears she was motivated by politics because of her anti-Trump Facebook postings. What is clear though is that she needs to receive the maximum sentence possible for leaking Top Secret information to the media because this leak is absolutely ridiculous.
What makes this even more pathetic is that this information was already known to the media. CNN reported back in October 2016 that federal officials told them that Russia may have compromised the personal information of Florida, Illinois, and Arizona voters. This leaked document is just the source for the information that federal officials already briefed the media. So Reality Winner has likely thrown her life away for providing information the media already knows and did not change one vote during last year’s election.
Age was the biggest factor in SK's election. As age rises, Moon's support fades; starting w age 50, center-right candidates become majority pic.twitter.com/CWV5mgZZje
A foreign woman married to a South Korean man casts a ballot at a multicultural center in Seoul on April 14, 2017, as part of a hands-on program in the runup to the May 9 presidential election. (Yonhap)
It looks like some high school students in South Korea will have the opportunity to vote in the next South Korean presidential election:
The voting age is likely to be lowered to 18 for the 2017 presidential election.
The New Conservative Party for Reform (NCPR), created by lawmakers who left the Saenuri Party, said Wednesday that it will seek to lower the voting age from 19 to 18 and apply it to the next election.
With all three opposition parties supporting an increase in the number of eligible voters, there is a high possibility that the Election Lw could be revised during an extraordinary session of the National Assembly in January.
If revised, those who are 18, currently high school students, will be able to vote in the presidential election, which could take place earlier than scheduled. [Korea Times]
South Korean President Park Geun-hye enters a voting booth in Seoul on April 13, 2016. The quadrennial polls are to elect a new 300-member National Assembly and take on extra significance as the results will affect how Park wraps up her remaining term in office, as well as set the tone for who will succeed her. (Yonhap)
It will be interesting to see who Korean-Americans support in this year’s Presidential election. Hopefully it is now for someone who wants the tried and failed policy of engaging North Korea and receiving little to nothing in return:
The U.S. presidential election in November is expected to be like no other. As the flamboyant candidates are currently challenging one another on a range of issues from immigration to foreign policy, many say that this year’s race is expected to be pivotal not only for Americans, but also for Koreans as well.
A prominent Korean-American political activist says it will also be significant for Koreans in Korea.
“Eligible Korean voters living in the U.S. have the capacity to have an influence on Washington’s various policies that directly affect Korea,” said Kim Dong-suk, founder and chairman of New York-based Korean American Civic Empowerment (KACE), in an interview. “In that sense, this year will be a turning point for all of us.”
He said that the ethnic minority vote will become an increasingly decisive factor in changing the outcome of U.S. elections, which means American politicians must appeal to people in all Asian communities, including Koreans. [Korea Times]
I would hope the majority of Korean-Americans are not thinking like this:
Paul Lee, chairman of the Bergen County Republican Committee (KARC), based in New Jersey, agrees that the election should be an opportunity for the Korean Peninsula to get the “fair analysis it deserves.”
“The U.S. is now talking to Cuba and Iran,” said Lee, who heads the committee that is under the umbrella of a local Republican party organization. “Is North Korea that much more crazy? Have we really made an effort to end the war in Korea? Whoever wins the White House, whether they’re a Republican or Democrat, they need to tackle the North Korea issue.”
North Korea is not crazy, but the Kim regime is definitely more oppressive and dangerous than the Iranians or Cubans. Also has Mr. Lee not been paying attention to all the overture to North Korea that have gone no where other then providing free goodies to the Kim regime to allow them to further their nuclear and ballistic missile programs?
This is a tough issue to address because I like the openness the Internet provides for people to share ideas, but with all the false information passed on the Internet to influence politics in South Korea I can understand why many in Korea think this law is needed. Anyone in Korea in 2008 can remember how crazy the madcow crisis became based off of Internet speculation and false news reports:
The Constitutional Court ruled constitutional Thursday a law that mandates a user-identification system on news outlets during an election period, citing the fairness of the election.
While the online real-name verification legislation was abolished in 2012, the current Public Official Election Act requires Internet news sites, including news aggregators, to provide the system for users to input and verify their identities when posting articles either supporting or countering a candidate during 30 days of election campaigning.
The court said in a 5-4 vote that considering the public confidence and awareness of the Web sites, information distortion could happen instantly through the spread of rumors or propaganda.
As it does not take much time to go through the verification process and it guarantees the protection of users’ personal information, the clause does not infringe upon the freedom of speech nor the right to self-determination, the court said. [Yonhap]
