By Jung Min-ho
Former President Lee Myung-bak will likely be questioned soon by prosecutors after the former defense minister disclosed that Lee ordered him to operate a military team to spread pro-government propaganda while he was in office.
The prosecution has requested an arrest warrant for Kim Kwan-jin, who is under suspicion of creating and running a secret team to “back up” the right-wing Lee government online against liberal politicians and their supporters between 2010 and 2012.
Kim served in the post from December 2010 to June 2014 and became the National Security Office chief under Park Geun-hye, Lee’s successor from the same party.
Kim reportedly told the prosecution that he was directly ordered by Lee to pick “our people only” when the ministry was recruiting people for the mission at its cyberwarfare unit.
It is obvious that “our people” were not those from the Jeolla provinces, the stronghold of the liberal parties. In fact, the prosecution found clues that the ministry screened out those from the region. For that, Kim is facing charges of abuse of power.
Prosecutors have also requested an arrest warrant for Lim Kwan-bin, a high-ranking ministry official who allegedly helped Kim with the illegal political activities.
Lim is also suspected of receiving a bribe of 30 million won ($27,000), which the prosecution suspects came from the National Intelligence Service.
Kim admitted to being informed of the secret online team’s activities, but denied that he let them do so in order to attack liberal politicians and their ideas. He claimed it was a part of the military’s strategy to fend off online security threats from North Korea.
He also insisted that former President Lee did not specifically ask him to weed out people from certain regions when he said “our people.” Kim noted he understood the message as nothing more than “select patriotic people only.”
A special team investigating the case within the ministry has reportedly found documents in which the former president ordered Kim to select only the people they preferred.
Prosecutors believe that Kim regularly reported the online team’s activities to Cheong Wa Dae.
One of the things the team allegedly did was glorify Lee as a charismatic leader who could protect the country from the rancorous regime in the North.
Kim Hyun, spokeswoman of the ruling Democratic Party, urged the prosecution to look into the former president immediately.
“Given what has been revealed, questioning Lee seems inevitable,” she said. “Investigators should look into Lee, the mastermind behind the illegal scheme.”