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 ties to the Moon campaign to the blogger behind the online opinion rigging scandal before the election has expanded:
Song In-bae
A political blogger known as Druking who allegedly used software to rig public opinion for – and later against – President Moon Jae-in had more ties to Moon’s aides and confidants than previously thought.
The Blue House found in an internal investigation that Moon’s personal secretary, Song In-bae, met with members of the blogger’s political group before last year’s presidential election, when they allegedly engaged in suspicious online activities to support Moon, then a candidate.
“Song met with members of the group four times,” Kim Eui-kyeom, the Blue House’s press secretary, said during a briefing on Monday. “The first was in June 2016.”
An acquaintance of Song who volunteered in his failed National Assembly run in 2016 first suggested the meeting. The acquaintance was part of Druking’s group. Some members allegedly requested that Song bring Kim Kyoung-soo, a former lawmaker with close ties to Moon.
“It is normal for campaign members to meet lots of people during election season,” Kim Eui-kyeom said. “Song was simply doing that in bringing Kim Kyoung-soo to the meeting. We found that Song did not meet with Druking after the election, so that was the end of the Blue House’s investigation.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Readers may remember that Kim Kyoung-soo is the Democrat Party representative that authorized and directed Druking’s online activities. It appears that Moon’s personal secretary needed someone to work with the bloggers and chose Moon’s close friend Kim Kyoung-soo to be that person. What is further interesting is that Song even took payments from the bloggers:
According to the Blue House, Song voluntarily requested the internal probe after Kim Kyoung-soo held a news conference on April 16 about his alleged connection with Druking. Blue House officials questioned Song on April 20 and 26 and found he had received money from Druking’s group but found no issue with the payment.
“They insisted on paying him an honorarium for meeting them,” Kim Eui-kyeom said. “Song initially refused to take it, but they insisted. He received a total of 2 million won [$1,844], which was given to him as 1 million won each time over two times.”
This is pretty amazing that President Moon’s personal secretary not only met with blogging group behind the online opinion rigging scandal multiple times, but even took a nearly $2,000 cash payment from them and yet the Blue House say there is nothing to see here. What further adds to this is the fact that NIS personnel are in jail for online opinion manipulation and former Presidents Park and Lee and others are all in jail for alleged bribes.
In this case we have President Moon’s own personal secretary taking a cash payment from a group conducting illegal activity, that after the election made requests for government positions and received some of them.
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.
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.
Here is the latest on the online opinion rigging scandal in South Korea:
In the latest development of Korea’s own “fake news” case, an influential blogger charged with manipulating comments on the country’s most popular portal site may have collected donations for a ruling party lawmaker, according to files obtained by the police on Tuesday, deepening suspicions that the blogger may have masterminded his campaign on behalf of the Democratic Party.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency obtained the files from a USB drive belonging to a close associate of Kim Dong-won, the blogger known online as Druking. The finding is the latest in a police investigation of Druking’s alleged campaign to rig online opinion in favor of President Moon Jae-in during last year’s election.
According to the police, Druking and his team used software to fiddle with the comments section on Naver by increasing the number of “likes” on certain comments and giving the appearance that one opinion dominated on the forum. Druking allegedly used the software to help Moon win the election, but when the president’s office refused to grant patronage positions to some of his acquaintances after the election, the blogger turned on Moon by having his team like comments critical of the president.
The police arrested Druking in March for his anti-Moon campaign, and at his first trial hearing last week, the blogger admitted to the charge. Central to Druking’s online activities was a community he ran called Kyungkongmo. According to files from the USB drive, members of the online community collected over 30 million won ($27,800) to deliver to Rep. Kim Kyoung-soo, a Democratic Party lawmaker with close ties to President Moon. The police are investigating allegations that Kim may have worked with Druking to manipulate online opinion during last year’s election and that Kyungkongmo may have supplied the manpower. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but I find it interesting that the police only cracked down on Druking after he turned on President Moon. Why wasn’t he arrested before then? Was his activities okay as long as they were targeted against Korean conservatives?
