By Yun Suh-young
The opposition Unified Progressive Party (UPP) said Monday it has asked the prosecution to investigate the hacking of its website.
“It happened at an important time when we were voting for party members to represent us in the general election. The hackers obviously intended to dub us a pro-North Korean party,” said Lee Jung-hee, the party’s co-chairwoman, in a statement.
Dozens of North Korean flags were plastered as wallpaper in the background of the website and a photo of North Koreans wailing in grief following their former leader Kim Jong-il’s death was placed in the center.
Among the wailing citizens was Lee, whose face had been photo-shopped as one of the North Koreans.
“Whoever hacked our website seems to have had the intention to interrupt our voting procedure. The incident has damaged our party. The culprit seems to be someone from an extremely conservative force who is trying to depict us as pro-North Korean,” said Lee.
The incident occurred twice at 10:30 p.m. Sunday and 12:15 a.m. Monday, party officials said.
Other representatives of the party also expressed their anger. Shim Sang-jeong, another co-chairwoman, also claimed that the hacking was an ideological terrorist attack.
“This cyber attack is a serious threat to democracy. This cannot be dealt with as a simple hacking incident. We will hold the culprit accountable after a thorough investigation,” said Shim.
The party’s website is currently shutdown and undergoing repairs.
Its Twitter account says “We will shutdown the website temporarily until its safety and security is made certain.”
The party is currently communicating with its supporters through social networking services such as Twitter.