South Korean former spy chief accused of election meddling

[rpannier]

South Korea's former spy chief has been indicted on charges of meddling in last year's presidential elections by ordering an online smear campaign against opposition candidates.

Won Sei-hoon ordered his agents to post comments slandering liberal candidates and praising the conservative Park Geun-hye, the Seoul central district prosecutors' office said. Park won the election in December by a million votes and took office in February.

snip

Prosecutors said NIS agents tried to portray the opposition candidate Moon Jae-in as being too soft on North Korea and unqualified to protect South Korea against North Korean threats. NIS said it planned to issue a response later.

link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/14/south-korean-spy-chief-election-meddling

on edit

Won systemically and extensively intervened in domestic politics, not only in violation of the law governing the status of NIS officials but also in violation of the Public Official Election Act, they said.

Won, a close aide to then-President Lee Myung-bak, can face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of the two laws that strictly ban civil servants from intervening in politics.

The prosecution office, however, said it has decided not to file charges against three former and incumbent agents of the agency's anti-North Korea psychological warfare team as they were just following Won's orders.

snip

Meanwhile, Kim Yong-pan, the former head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA), was also indicted without physical detention on suspicions that he had hampered a police probe into the scandal, prosecutors said.

Kim is accused of abusing his authority by pressuring a police investigation team not to delve too deeply into the case, it said. Kim is also accused of violating the Police Officers Act and the Public Official Election Act, they added.

Another mid-ranking SMPA official has also been indicted without physical detention on charges of permanently deleting data on a computer hard disk ahead of a prosecution raid into the agency's headquarters, they said.

Meanwhile, two former NIS officials have been also indicted without physical detention on charges of handing over private information and informing the DP about the agency's alleged attempt to influence public opinion ahead of the election, they added.

link:
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2013/06/14/38/0301000000AEN20130614002652315F.HTML

[Enthusiast]

1. South Korea better be careful or

they will end up losing their democracy like we in the U.S. have.

[No Elephants]

2. Pshaw. Everybody knows Korean elections are on the up and up.

Just like Afghanistan's election.

No surprise. Who could possibly resist Kim Jong-un or Hamid Karzai?







And they're stylin', too!