The official Web site of the Asian Taekwondo Union (ATU) was hacked yesterday, one day after the union posted a controversial article accusing Taiwanese gold medal hopeful Yang Shu-chun (楊淑君) of cheating in a taekwondo match at the Asian Games in China.
The hacker left messages on the site saying “we all Taiwanese,” “shame on you,” and demanding that the ATU “give our gold medal back.”
There was also a digitally created- image showing a middle finger pointing upward between the national flags of the People’s Republic of China and South Korea, amid accusations that China and South Korea were behind the decision to disqualify Yang.
In an apparent attempt to show the “truth” behind the controversy, in which Yang was disqualified over sensors in her footwear, the hacker also uploaded a video showing Yang removing two sensors before the start of the fight on Wednesday.
The ATU released a statement on its Web site on Thursday accusing Yang of a “shocking act of deception,” and saying that she had attached two extra sensors to her footwear to increase her chances of winning.
Yang has insisted the sensors were within the rules and that she had no intention of manipulating or cheating in the match.
The ATU Web site’s homepage yesterday bore a message in Korean saying it was temporarily down -“because of excessive traffic,” while an ATU official said: “Our Web site remains paralyzed today for unknown reasons.”
Asked to comment on the ATU’s statement, World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) secretary-general Yang Jin-suk said at a press conference in Guangzhou yesterday that he could not speak for the ATU because it is a separate organization from the WTF.
However, the South Korean official said it was “inappropriate” for the ATU to issue such a statement.
He also expressed disapproval of the Web hacking incident.
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