From 2009 to late 2012, the Korean intelligence agencies took to SNS to influence public opinion and the elections against the opposition party. A couple of weeks ago, the present government found evidence of this and managed to restore deliberately deleted tapes of a former intelligence chief. There were over 30 task groups set up to spread favorable posts for Park Keun-hye and negative posts against the opposition. It seems that this all started with the Lee Myung-bak administration. There is only 5 months left on the statute of limitations for Lee Myung-bak on this one. Tough break!
The Guardian: S. Korea spy agency admits trying to rig 2012 presidential election
Korea Times: Ex-president may face probe over spy agency's election meddling
The Guardian: S. Korea spy agency admits trying to rig 2012 presidential election
Korea Times: Ex-president may face probe over spy agency's election meddling
If a conservative party president was in office, this would not have been possible. It would have been covered up.
A prosecutor tried to investigate in 2012 and was pressured out of office. He is a chief prosecutor now.
A few days before the Presidential elections in 2012, the police said there was no evidence of such activities on SNS by the intelligence agency. No one has been arrested for obstruction of justice and spreading false information, so far.
Kim Moo-sung, a conservative party member, also spread false rumors about President Noh Moo-hyun and North Korea right before the elections in 2012 in order to discredit Moon Jae-in who was close to President Noh. He was found not guilty, somehow. They lock up people for doing that nowadays. Seems very unfair.
If you were corrupt, rich, powerful, could beat up employees, break laws, get pardoned, steal, lie and cheat, then would you want Korea to change? Why don't more Koreans see this? It almost seems as if some are permanently brainwashed.
I receive emails from old people supporting the conservative groups and spreading hate against President Moon Jae-in, stating that he is a commie and a disgrace. If it is not Korean intelligence doing this now, who is it?
Korea finally signed three agreements with the International Labor Organization last month. Before the corrupt rich used the government to crack down on labor unions and make it illegal to have retired employees in the unions. Then they broke up several unions that had retired employees as members. The new agreements prevent the government from doing this.
Things seem to be much better now. They restored the corporate tax to 25%, but only for the very top conglomerates and raised the income tax for the very wealthy from 40% to 42%. The conservatives cried bloody murder and warned that this would lead to tax increases for everyone. Can you believe that probably close to 15% of Koreans believe this stuff? In the past, the majority believed. Imagine how I felt!
