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January 23, 2009
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| Park Dae-sung, a 31-year-old blogger who shook up officialdom with his economic predictions, was indicted yesterday on charges of spreading false information through the Internet. Park used the ID “Minerva” as he flooded the Internet with dire predictions on the economy and sharp criticism of the Lee Myung-bak administration. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office charged Park with violating the nation’s electronic communication law in two of his 280 postings. According to the prosecution, Park uploaded a post on Daum’s Agora Internet forum on July 30, 2008 stating that the government would suspend trading of its foreign currency reserves beginning Aug. 1. In another posting on Dec. 29, Park said that the government had ordered major banks and exporters not to purchase dollars, causing an upswing in dollar demand, prosecutors said. The government denied the claim, although others have said it was close to the truth. The prosecutors said Park had harmed the public interest by spreading allegedly false information while being aware that he was a highly recognized figure in cyberspace. Prosecutors said Park’s actions caused intangible losses - such as a weakened sovereign rating - as well as tangible losses in the country’s foreign currency market. Prosecutors said they found no accomplice after investigating Park’s telephone and e-mail communications. Park was taken into custody on Jan. 7 and formally detained on Jan. 10. During questioning, Park admitted that he was Minerva and had written the controversial posts. The unemployed, self-taught Park stunned prosecutors by demonstrating his economic essay-writing skills while in custody. Both prosecutors and Park said Minerva never accepted an interview request from the media, contrary to a monthly magazine Shindonga’s claim that it had spoken with the infamous blogger for its February issue. The magazine also said there were seven people responsible for the Minerva posts. Prosecutors said they have no plan to investigate the report. They said they’d confirmed that Park’s home computer was used to log in and post the Minerva messages. According to the prosecution, Park wrote his 280 posts between last March and Jan. 5 of this year. He successfully predicted both the fall of Lehman Brothers and the weakening of the won. By Ser Myo-ja Staff Reporter [myoja@joongang.co.kr] |
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