The 2018 opinion rigging scandal in South Korea is a political scandal that erupted in April 2018 after a group of ardent supporters of the South Korean PresidentMoon Jae-in had been charged with online opinion rigging. The accused suspects were the members of the ruling Democratic Party. The main perpetrator, as well as the leader of the pro-Moon group, was a well-known power-blogger called "Druking."
Organized opinion rigging
Druking established a fake company known as the "Neureupnamu publishing company" in the city of Paju for organized opinion rigging. The accused used a macro program that can generate a barrage of online comments and likes in a few seconds in order to manipulate the public opinion in their favor.
Controversy
The scandal led to a clash of political parties in South Korea. The Blue House and the ruling Democratic Party insisted that they are also a victim of the scandal. But the opposition parties emphasized that, since President Moon's involvement is suspected, this scandal is linked to the Moon administration's legitimacy. They called for a special prosecutor investigation for scrutiny.
On 21 May 2018, the National Assembly of South Korea passed a bill to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the scandal. On 8 June president Moon has appointed former prosecutor and current lawyer Huh Ik-beom for the special prosecutor. Justice Party lawmaker and long-time progressive activist Roh Hoe-chan committed suicide on 23 July during the investigation. Kim Kyung-Soo, the current governor of South Gyeongsang Province and former lawmaker, was summoned by the Special Prosecutor, on 7 August. The special prosecutor issued the warrant for arrest on Kim, however the request was rejected by Seoul central district court. Prosecutor Huh announced the official end of investigation on 27 August without any extension of period. The prosecutor announced the conclusion, that governor Kim, lawmaker at that time, is accomplice to the scandal, and will be under indictment without detention. The Minjoo Party spokesperson criticized the special prosecutor, claiming the investigation process depended only on Druking's testimonial, without any proper evidence.
Decryption of encrypted files
In the special prosecutor investigation for Druking in South Korea, the special prosecutor team tried to decrypt files encrypted by TrueCrypt and he succeeded to decrypt some of them. The special prosecutor said the hidden volumes were the specially difficult part to deal with. He decrypted some of encrypted files by inputting words that Druking group possibly use as passwords into passphrases as parts of them. For instance, Druking group likes words such as Zi wei dou shu and KKM, so the special prosecutor team tried to input them into the passphrases as parts of them. After the special prosecutor team decrypted some of the encrypted files, Druking's associates changed their minds in the investigation.
