South Korea’s spy agency has admitted that it had engaged in a far-reaching attempt to manipulate voters as it sought to help conservatives win parliamentary and presidential elections.
In-house investigators from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) confirmed that the agency’s cyberwarfare unit organized and operated up to 30 teams for more than two years in the run-up to the 2012 elections, the agency said in a statement late on Thursday.
They hired Internet-savvy civilians and sought to sway voter opinions through postings on portals and Twitter, the statement said.
Photo: AP
“The teams were charged with spreading pro-government opinions and suppressing anti-government views, branding them as pro-North Korean forces’ attempts to disturb state affairs,” it said.
At the time South Korea was led by president Lee Myung-bak.
Former South Korean president Park Geun-hye won the December 2012 presidential election, defeating Moon Jae-in.
Moon won South Korea’s presidential vote in May this year after Park was impeached and dismissed over corruption and abuse of power.
He has vowed to reform the NIS to prevent it from meddling in elections and make it focus on collecting and analyzing intelligence on North Korea and foreign affairs.
A spokesman for Park’s party, now in opposition and renamed Liberty Korea, yesterday said that the inquiry was “politically motivated.”
“The NIS says it will dissociate itself from politics, but it is meddling in politics again by starting this probe,” spokesman Kang Hyo-sang said in a statement.
Former NIS chief Won Sei-hoon is being tried for the second time for leading an online smear campaign against Moon after his initial conviction was overturned on appeal.
However, the NIS investigation results suggest the scale of the voter manipulation was far wider than previously thought.
The internal probe also found that Won ordered the agency to muzzle the press, provide support for pro-government civic groups and put some major opposition politicians under secret surveillance.
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ACCOUNTABILITY: The incident, which occured at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taichung, was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the 12th floor Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday. The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
‘LAWFUL USE’: The last time a US warship transited the Taiwan Strait was on Oct. 20 last year, and this week’s transit is the first of US President Donald Trump’s second term Two US military vessels transited the Taiwan Strait from Sunday through early yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement, the first such mission since US President Donald Trump took office last month. The two vessels sailed south through the Strait, the ministry said, adding that it closely monitored nearby airspace and waters at the time and observed nothing unusual. The ministry did not name the two vessels, but the US Navy identified them as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit from