Moon's aide had relationship with 'Druking'

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

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Fri, December 8, 2023 | 05:59

Politics

Moon's aide had relationship with 'Druking'

Posted : 2018-05-21 16:11

Updated : 2018-05-21 18:00

The blogger "Druking," who has been detained over his opinion-rigging activities on portal sites, attends a trial hearing, May 16. / Yonhap

By Choi Ha-young

Cheong Wa Dae is in the hot seat following media reports that an aide of President Moon Jae-in maintained a relationship with a notorious blogger at the center of a high-profile online opinion rigging case during last year's presidential race.

According to the reports, presidential secretary Song In-bae, met the blogger Kim Dong-won, better known by his online name "Druking," four times before the presidential election in May last year, when Song served as a key campaigner for Moon.

From June 2016 to February 2017, Song also received 2 million won ($1,840) for attending conferences organized by Kim, according to the office of the presidential secretary for civil affairs. A month ago, the presidential secretary office investigated the relationship between Song and Kim, a high-ranking Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters.

The amount of the money was "within the usual boundaries" said the official. At that time, the result of the investigation was told to presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok, but not to the President.

It also turned out that Song introduced the blogger to Kim Kyoung-soo, a confidant of Moon.

After being briefed about this Monday, President Moon told his secretaries to give an unvarnished account of what happened. "When the presidential office looked into the case, we thought the meetings between Song and Druking were part of the usual election campaign," the official said.

The key points of the scandal are whether the blogger and accomplices used an illegal software macro before the presidential election in May last year, under the direction of the aides. The automated program enables a user to input multiple comments or likes for specific comments on news articles.

Initially, the authorities began to look into the blogger's illegal online activities after it recognized the use of the macro in January, in a smear campaign against President Moon's peace overtures. The pro-Moon netizen reportedly turned against him after his request for personnel appointments for friends were ignored.

So far, no evidence has emerged that Song directed the online comment manipulations. In a news conference last month, Kim said he used to distribute article links published on portal sites, such as Naver and Daum, but denied the opinion-rigging allegation.

The case has been at the center of political strife between the ruling and opposition parties. The floor leader of the largest opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) Kim Sung-tae even staged a hunger strike for nine days, calling for an independent counsel to look into the President, as well as the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and Kim Kyoung-soo.

After weeks of bitter confrontation over the special counsel bill, the rival parties passed it in a plenary session Monday.

The conservative opposition parties have taken the issue up, apparently in a bid to harm the popularity of the Moon administration and rally conservative voters ahead of the mayoral and gubernatorial elections in June.

Since Kim Kyoung-soo is running for the post of South Gyeongsang Province governor, the result of the special investigation may affect the election. The DPK has defined the moves as "ignoring the presidential election outcome."

hayoung.choi@ktimes.com