Tag: Song In-bae

The ties to the Moon campaign to the blogger behind the online opinion rigging scandal before the election has expanded:

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.