Presidential Election And Spy Agency
Thursday, 19 April 2018
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Dear Korean,
With all the accusations about fixing the election last year, what is likely to happen politically?
Jen S.
Right now, Korean democracy is going through a kind of crisis of confidence. To be sure, it is not the type of severe crisis that Korean democracy has experienced before, such as the military rolling tanks into the heart of Seoul to claim power. Nonetheless, when the nation's spy agency intervenes in the nation's presidential election to favor one candidate over the other, it is a serious concern.
First, some background. It all started in December 11, 2012, mere eight days before Korea's presidential election. The ruling, conservative New Frontier Party, to which the outgoing president Lee Myeong-bak also belonged, fielded Park Geun-hye as the candidate. On the progressive side, the Democratic United Party's Moon Jae-in was gaining steam as the popular independent Ahn Cheol-su bowed out of the race and expressed support for Moon. some 70 agents who was engaged in a systematic campaign on the Internet to put up comments on popular websites, expressing support for Park and disparaging Moon. The informant also tipped that one such agent was working out of the apartment, to which the DUP officials rushed to with the police.
The police and the officials actually managed to speak with the young woman who was living in the apartment. She denied that she was an NIS agent. The police and the DUP officials left the apartment when the woman agreed to cooperate with the investigation by turning over her computer to the National Elections Commission. However, when the NEC officials later visited the apartment with the DUP officials, the woman locked herself in and refused to come out. For the next 40 hours, DUP officials and journalists laid siege of the apartment until they could obtain a warrant from the court.
On December 13, the young woman--who in fact turned out to be an NIS agent--emerged out of her apartment and sued the DUP officials for defamation, claiming that she maintained neutrality in politics. She also turned over her laptops to the Seoul Metropolitan Police, which initially estimated that it would take at least one week for them to analyze the NIS agent's Internet activity.
(More of the jump.)
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The third and jawaban TV debate between the presidential candidates occurred on December 16. It was the general consensus that Park Geun-hye was not a strong debater. 8.3 percent of those who voted for Park Geun-hye would have switched sides--which would have changed the jawaban tally to Moon Jae-in 52.3 percent, Park Geun-hye 47.3 percent.
Even after the presidential election was over, the investigation trudged along. By February 2013, the Supreme Prosecutor's Office--which, in Korea, has its own investigative authority--took over the investigation. After vigorous protests from the Democratic Party (which changed its name from Democratic United Party after the presidential election,) there was also a National Assembly investigation and hearing. Bit by bit, the facts began to emerge. The following is what is revealed:
With all the accusations about fixing the election last year, what is likely to happen politically?
Jen S.
Right now, Korean democracy is going through a kind of crisis of confidence. To be sure, it is not the type of severe crisis that Korean democracy has experienced before, such as the military rolling tanks into the heart of Seoul to claim power. Nonetheless, when the nation's spy agency intervenes in the nation's presidential election to favor one candidate over the other, it is a serious concern.
First, some background. It all started in December 11, 2012, mere eight days before Korea's presidential election. The ruling, conservative New Frontier Party, to which the outgoing president Lee Myeong-bak also belonged, fielded Park Geun-hye as the candidate. On the progressive side, the Democratic United Party's Moon Jae-in was gaining steam as the popular independent Ahn Cheol-su bowed out of the race and expressed support for Moon. some 70 agents who was engaged in a systematic campaign on the Internet to put up comments on popular websites, expressing support for Park and disparaging Moon. The informant also tipped that one such agent was working out of the apartment, to which the DUP officials rushed to with the police.
The police and the officials actually managed to speak with the young woman who was living in the apartment. She denied that she was an NIS agent. The police and the DUP officials left the apartment when the woman agreed to cooperate with the investigation by turning over her computer to the National Elections Commission. However, when the NEC officials later visited the apartment with the DUP officials, the woman locked herself in and refused to come out. For the next 40 hours, DUP officials and journalists laid siege of the apartment until they could obtain a warrant from the court.
Video of the seiged apartment. Through the door, the young woman can be heard
claiming that she was not an NIS agent.
On December 13, the young woman--who in fact turned out to be an NIS agent--emerged out of her apartment and sued the DUP officials for defamation, claiming that she maintained neutrality in politics. She also turned over her laptops to the Seoul Metropolitan Police, which initially estimated that it would take at least one week for them to analyze the NIS agent's Internet activity.
(More of the jump.)
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
The third and jawaban TV debate between the presidential candidates occurred on December 16. It was the general consensus that Park Geun-hye was not a strong debater. 8.3 percent of those who voted for Park Geun-hye would have switched sides--which would have changed the jawaban tally to Moon Jae-in 52.3 percent, Park Geun-hye 47.3 percent.
* * *
Even after the presidential election was over, the investigation trudged along. By February 2013, the Supreme Prosecutor's Office--which, in Korea, has its own investigative authority--took over the investigation. After vigorous protests from the Democratic Party (which changed its name from Democratic United Party after the presidential election,) there was also a National Assembly investigation and hearing. Bit by bit, the facts began to emerge. The following is what is revealed:
- The young woman NIS agent, who initially locked herself in, did in fact actively comment, as well as "up-voted" and "down-voted," in a way that supported Park Geun-hye and undermined Moon Jae-in.
- Anti-North Korea Psychological Warfare," a strange and disturbing claim since the division only operated within South Korean websites. In his instructions, the head of the NIS repeatedly equated the progressives with North Korean fifth column.
- The division had four teams, each of which had an assignment: Team 1 oversaw the entire operation; Team 2 worked the large websites; Team 3, the mid-sized web communities, and Team 5, Twitter. (There was no Team 4.) The website and web communities teams posted between 1200 to 1600 pieces of writing on the Internet per month. The Twitter team posted over 55,000 tweets and retweets regarding the election. -EDIT 11/20/2013- According to the Supreme Prosecutor's Office's latest finding, the NIS agents posted more than 1.2 million tweets and retweets regarding Korean politics, of which approximately 500,000 related to the presidential election.
- -EDIT 11/21/2013- The NIS fed conservative-leaning stories to approximately 30 conservative-leaning websites. Once the websites published the stories, the NIS agents spread the stories through other large websites or Twitter.
- The NIS also recruited civilians, and paid them to also engage in the same activities on the Internet.
- NIS may not be the only government body that systematically involved itself in the election. At least two other governmental arms are being investigated for running similar teams working on the Internet to influence elections: ROK Army's Cyber Command, and the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs.
- While locking herself in the room, the first NIS agent who was outed deleted 187 files from her laptop, and reported to the NIS that she did so. The deleted files included the .txt file that listed numerous online IDs, their passwords, and links leading to materials praising the outgoing president.
- Once the police investigation began, the NIS systematically deleted the hundreds of online IDs it used, and the thousands of posts its agents wrote. Although the police could not recover the deleted IDs and posts, the Supreme Prosecutor's Office restored them.
- The local Suseo police office, which was investigating the claim, originally requested Seoul Metropolitan Police Office's Digital Evidence Analysis Team to search for 78 keywords associated with the laptops received from the first NIS agent who locked herself in the house. The SMPO, however, reduced the number of keywords to four, and three days later announced that it found no evidence of election involvement.
- The SMPO was composing the initial draft of its interim conclusion before it received any evidence from the Suseo police.
- Even with the limited investigation, the SMPO Digital Evidence Analysis Team in fact found a huge amount of evidence showing that the NIS agent was engaged in elections tempering. The closed circuit TV recording of the Digital Team, dated December 16, 2012, shows the police analysts discussing they "found a gold mine" and "this can't go out to the media; the NIS will be in trouble if it does. They could not have known we would find this."
- was later censured by the Seoul Metropolitan Police for interviewing with the media without permission.
- The investigation was able to move forward because the Supreme Prosecutor's Office overrode the police and exercised its own investigative authority. As the SPO's investigation heated up, the leading conservative newspaper Chosun Ilbo In her first and only address before the National Assembly, the president said obliquely that she "regrets the conflict and struggle continue even though the election has been nearly a year ago," and urged the National Assembly to "wait, trusting the will of the government and the judgment of the judiciary."
Through other channels, Park has been adamant that her election was fair. In a private conference with the heads of the New Frontier Party and the Democratic Party, she angrily asked the DP representative: "Are you saying I was elected president because of some Internet comments?" In a meeting with Blue House chiefs, she also claimed that she "never received any help" from the NIS, although she also said she supported NIS reform.
What is likely to happen? Although the radical fringe of Korea's progressives are calling for Park's impeachment or resignation, mainstream progressives and the Democratic Party have no appetite for such dramatic measures. This makes for an oddly muted reaction. Sure, a National Assembly investigation and public statements in protests are nice, but are those all in a case in which the national spy agency threatened the very legitimacy of the democratic process in Korea?
Perhaps it is the sign of maturity on the part of Korea's democracy that the leader does not change at every turn, the gravity of the situation notwithstanding. It appears that the maximum that the Democratic Party would seek from the president is a recognition and apology over the tainted election. Otherwise, the Democratic Party would probably be content with using this issue to politically hobble the president, and parlay it into the upcoming local elections next year.
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