A Fateful Week of 'Comment Manipulation'... Will Kim Kyung-soo Keep His Governor Position?

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The fate of Kim Kyung-soo, Governor of Gyeongnam Province, who was indicted on charges of manipulating comments in the 'Druking comment manipulation' case, will be decided this week. A judgment is also expected regarding the allegation that Kim offered a consulate general position. If the two-year prison sentence handed down in the second trial is confirmed, he will lose his governorship.

According to the legal community on the 18th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Lee Dong-won) will hold a sentencing hearing on the 21st for Kim, who is accused of manipulating online comments.

Kim was indicted on charges of conspiring with Kim Dong-won, known as Druking, and others to interfere with the comment ranking process by sending a total of over 88.4 million click signals to 1,188,000 comments on about 76,000 articles on Naver, Daum, and Nate from December 2016 to April 2018.

He is also accused of proposing the position of Consul General in Sendai, Japan, to Do-mo, an associate lawyer of Kim, as a reward for helping his campaign for the June 13 local elections as Governor of Gyeongnam.

The comment manipulation charges were ruled guilty in both the first and second trials. The violation of the Public Official Election Act was found guilty in the first trial but acquitted in the second.

The key issue in the final appeal is whether Kim was aware of the existence of the comment manipulation program King Crab. The special prosecutor Heo Ik-beom believes that Kim was informed about the development progress of King Crab and judged that Kim knew about King Crab’s existence and conspired to manipulate comments.

Regarding the allegation of offering the consulate general position, the special prosecutor stated, "Between Kim and Druking Kim, the candidate to be supported in the 2018 local elections was specifically identified as the candidate to be nominated by Kim’s affiliated party," and "Kim decided to continue the cooperative relationship with Druking Kim until the local elections when offering the Sendai consulate general position."

On the other hand, Kim’s side maintains that Kim Dong-won only reported that he was engaged in positive comment activities and did not provide any explanation about King Crab. Regarding the violation of the Public Official Election Act, the second trial court ruled “For the violation of the Public Official Election Act to be established, the existence of a specific election and a specific candidate must first be recognized, and relevance must be acknowledged. At the time Kim expressed his intention to offer the consulate general position to lawyer Do, no candidate running in the local election was specified, and there is no proof of relevance to the election,” thus acquitting him.

Of course, there is also a possibility that the Supreme Court on the 21st may accept Kim’s side’s argument and remand the case due to insufficient examination of some charges. However, if the comment manipulation charge, for which a prison sentence was imposed, is not overturned, Kim, who is currently out on bail, cannot avoid re-imprisonment. In addition, he will lose his governorship and will be barred from running in elections for five years after serving his sentence.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.