By Lee Kyung-min
At least half of the 20 officials at the Cyber Command unit of the military, mobilized to carry out an online smear campaign in the lead-up to the 2012 presidential election and the upcoming general elections, were on state-funded scholarships at Korea University graduate school programs, a lawmaker said Monday.
According to data from Rep. Kim Hae-young of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, the Cyber Command under the Ministry of National Defense and the Korea University Division of Information Security Graduate School of Information Security agreed to operate a three-year program only for Cyber Command officials qualified to attend the program starting Aug. 25, 2014.
Twenty officials attended the program for master’s and doctorate degrees, with the 14 million won ($12,000) yearly tuition paid for in full by both the ministry and the university.
Of the total, at least half, Kim said, were identified as having worked for the psychological warfare unit under the Cyber Command, a department known for orchestrating online campaigns to help conservative politicians and pundits including ousted former President Park Geun-hye, and to hurt liberals.
Of the current attendees, two in the doctoral program and nine out of 16 in the master’s program are officials working at the unit.
Kim said harsh criticism should follow not only for funding such a program in the first place but more for failing to cancel it.
The program continued despite the allegation of the military’s political maneuvering made during the National Assembly inspection in October 2013.
It was continued in August the following year when a special investigation team under the military convicted two senior chiefs of the Command for violating the Military Law that bans its officials from engaging in any activities that influence the outcome of a politically divisive issue.
Of the two, commander Yeon Je-wook was given a suspended sentence and the military court released Ok Do-kyung on one year of probation.
Among the doctoral candidates is a man only identified by his surname Park, the former head of the Command’s psychological warfare unit.
Park was confirmed to have written a report on details about the activities of his unit in the lead up to the general election in 2012. The report was reviewed by then Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin who regularly briefed President Lee Myung-bak about the developments.
Lee awarded Park with a Presidential honor in recognition of his national merit in February 2013, soon after Park Geun-hye was elected President.
The unit head Park was convicted for violating military law but received a suspended sentence.
Korea University was unavailable for comment.