People Power Party's 'Shin Namseong Yeondae' Accused of Comment Manipulation... Reported to Prosecutors

Ruling Party: "Shin Namseong Yeondae Created for Organized Comment Manipulation"

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] On the 10th, the Democratic Party of Korea filed a complaint with the prosecution against seven members of the People Power Party’s election campaign headquarters and the ‘Shin Namseong Yeondae’ on charges of organized comment manipulation.

Yang Bu-nam, head of the Democratic Party’s election campaign committee’s legal support team for public verification, announced that they reported them to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act’s ‘prohibition of establishing similar organizations for illegal election campaigning’ and criminal law’s ‘obstruction of business of portal sites and computers.’

Yang explained, “The accused established Shin Namseong Yeondae to support the election of Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party’s presidential candidate, and operated a comment unit called the ‘Media Purification Team.’ The accused instructed Shin Namseong Yeondae members to write comments on election articles and directed them to recommend or oppose comments so that these comments would be prominently exposed.” According to the Democratic Party, there are at least 22 articles whose comments and recommendation counts were manipulated by Shin Namseong Yeondae since the 3rd.

The seven people reported by the Democratic Party are △ Jin Jong-won, head of the People Power Party’s election campaign headquarters’ public communication office △ Lee Woo-jin, head of the SNS comprehensive situation room of the campaign headquarters’ organization office △ Lim Chae-deok, spokesperson for the People Power Party Gyeonggi Province Party △ Kim Jong-moon, co-chairman of the People Power Party Daejeon campaign committee △ Kim Sang-jin, president of the Yoon Seok-yeol fan club △ Bae In-gyu, CEO of Shin Namseong Yeondae △ Song Si-in, CEO of Shin Namseong Yeondae.

In response, Park Chan-dae, senior spokesperson for the Democratic Party, issued a statement saying, “It is truly shocking that the People Power Party has established its own comment manipulation organization and engaged in all-out public opinion manipulation,” and criticized, “This is a repetition of the forces that mobilized the National Intelligence Service and the military cyber command for comment manipulation during the 2012 presidential election process.”

He added, “The Democratic Party strongly condemns the People Power Party’s manipulation crimes aimed at destroying democracy,” and demanded, “The prosecution should promptly investigate and eradicate such incidents.” Yang also stated, “They themselves are aware of the possibility of punishment for their actions,” and “Swift search and seizure and account tracking are necessary to prevent evidence destruction.”

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