Anchor: An independent counsel team wrapped its probe on an online opinion rigging scandal involving the blogger “druking" that has made headlines for months now. It concluded that South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo colluded with druking to rig comments ahead of last year’s presidential election.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.
Report: An independent counsel team, led by Huh Ik-bum, announced the results of its 60-day probe on an online opinion scandal on Monday.
It found that South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo, together with political blogger “druking” and his supporters, used data manipulation software called King Crab from November 2016 and during last year’s presidential election.
The team believes druking was telling the truth when he said that he actively developed King Crab with permission from Kim after showing the governor an early version of the computer program in November 2016.
In particular, the team found that druking had made the software operational by December 2016, or earlier than planned, after taking into consideration that a presidential race could take place amid the influence-peddling scandal that eventually led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.
The team cited that druking and his supporters’ rigging activities grew 20-fold in January 2017 compared to the prior month after Park’s impeachment became more likely.
The team assessed that druking sought to affect the presidential elections as he and his group further expanded such rigging activities in March when Park was ousted and continued to engage in such operations through May, when the presidential elections were held.
Druking is said to have testified to the independent counsel that he took part in such activities for the presidential race, a claim which Governor Kim has flatly denied.
The independent counsel team, on its part, plans to prove in court that Kim ordered and approved the rigging efforts with the presidential race in mind.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.