Posted on 10/22/2013 6:05:28 PM PDT by TexGrill
South Korea's Defense Ministry said Monday that it would announce interim results of its probe into the alleged political intervention by cyber warfare agents with negative online comments against the main opposition party candidate ahead of last year's presidential election.
"Tomorrow afternoon, an interim explanation will be given on the investigation," Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters at a press briefing, declining to comment on further details.
Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin ordered the investigation into the allegations on Oct. 15 after the left-leaning local daily Hankyoreh reported some soldiers and military personnel at the ministry's Cyber Warfare Command posted around 300 online writings against then-opposition camp candidate Moon Jae-in ahead of the December 2012 presidential election.
The Defense Ministry reportedly launched the cyber command composed of about 400 agents in 2010 as part of efforts to strengthen cyber warfare capability and counter possible hacking attacks from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
According to a military official cited by Yonhap News Agency, four command agents admitted to posting negative comments in cyberspace through their personal blogs, which would inevitably change the military's probe into a full-fledged investigation by military prosecutors or police.
Spokesman Kim said that the possibly full-fledged investigation would allow for coercive measures such as search and confiscation, saying that the ongoing probe was a voluntary verification process by the suspected personnel. Kim declined to comment on detailed schedules for the investigation.
(Excerpt) Read more at globaltimes.cn ...
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