'Lee Myung-bak gov't attempted to hack MissyUSA'

By Kim Rahn

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) under the 2008-13 Lee Myung-bak government attempted to hack a Korean-American women’s website that was critical of him, according to an NIS internal investigation team digging into the agency’s past wrongdoings, Thursday.

It also suspects two cyberattacks that took place during the succeeding Park Geun-hye administration may have been conducted by the spy agency as well.

According to the team, the NIS’s psychological warfare unit drew up plans to attack the MissyUSA website in 2010 under the Lee administration with the aim of “incapacitating” the group.

MissyUSA is the largest online community of Korean women living in the U.S. and Canada, with more than 300,000 members. The group had criticized some policies of the conservative Lee and Park administrations.

In 2008 when tens of thousands of people in Korea staged candlelit rallies to protest the Lee government’s decision to reintroduce imports of U.S. beef, MissyUSA and several smaller groups joined the move, placing ads to raise funds for the protest.

The team recently confirmed the cyberattack plan and is investigating whether it was actually carried out.

It is also looking into whether the NIS was involved in the two cyberattacks on the website under the Park government.

MissyUSA said earlier its bulletin board made to commemorate the Sewol ferry sinking came under a cyberattack, May 9, 2014, about a month after the tragedy. It was the day the group was scheduled to hold rallies in all 50 U.S. states in memory of the victims and to protest against the Park government. Some postings on the board were removed after the attack, according to the group.

Earlier in May 2013, the website was the first to disclose the sexual misconduct of Park’s spokesman Yoon Chang-jung during the former president’s visit to the U.S. After the disclosure, the website suffered another cyberattack.

If the NIS’s involvement is confirmed, those involved are likely to face punishment. According to a related law, people here who conduct cyberattacks on foreign websites are subject to prosecution.

Beside the cyberattack allegations, the Park administration plotted to manipulate public opinion in Missy USA, the Hankyoreh reported recently based on disclosed minutes of a presidential secretaries’ meeting.

In the Sept. 22, 2014, meeting then-presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon said some U.S.-based anti-government groups had held protests against Park in front of the Korean Consulate General in Los Angeles coinciding with Park’s visit to the country, adding a conservative news site reported a North Korean agent was at the protest scene.

“This shows anti-government groups in the U.S. are related to North Korea, showing what MissyUSA, which claims to be a group of ordinary housewives, really is,” Kim said according to the minutes. “We need to let domestic media report this.”

But a local court ruled last year that the conservative news outlet’s report linking MissyUSA to North Korea was groundless.