Lee administration received reports about Cyber Command’s political interference

Posted on : 2017-10-04 15:14 KST Modified on : 2017-10-04 15:14 KST
New documents show Blue House officials were aware of military’s role in boosting ruling party candidates
Former Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin pauses to look at documents while answering questions about the results of an investigation into the Military Cyber Command’s online commenting activities at a hearing of the National Assembly Defense Committee on Dec. 23
Former Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin pauses to look at documents while answering questions about the results of an investigation into the Military Cyber Command’s online commenting activities at a hearing of the National Assembly Defense Committee on Dec. 23

Interim investigation findings reported on Oct. 1 by a Ministry of Defense task force re-investigating an operation involving politically motivated online posts by the Military Cyber Command clearly show the Blue House received direct and detailed reports on the command’s activities. According to the ministry’s findings, most of the command’s 462 total reports to the Blue House between Jan. 8, 2011, and Nov. 15, 2012, were “daily reports on domestic and overseas cyber trends,” but details about politically motivated online posts were also included.

“There’s one report regarding the posts. It’s a report on the outcome, which talks about how public opinion changed from this to that percentage after the posting operation,” a military official said.

Also included in the reports were analyses of the results of a by-election on Apr. 27, 2011; trends related to candlelight demonstrations against US beef imports; and social media trends for celebrities and famous figures. The evidence shows far-reaching politically motivated monitoring and political interference by Cyber Command.

The investigation also showed the command used the military’s Korea Joint Command and Control System (KJCCS) and national defense network for its Blue House reports. KJCCS, an internal network used by military units for military operations, is employed when reporting on areas requiring confidentiality. The national defense network is an internal administrative network used by the Ministry of Defense and military units.

The reason for using KJCCS for reports appears to have been maintaining secrecy. But information posted to the KJCCS server cannot be arbitrarily deleted by users – indeed, it was by restoring the server that the investigators were able to obtain the documents. In other words, the use of KJCCS to maintain confidential ended up backfiring and leaving a paper trail behind. The fact the Cyber Command, a unit directly under the ministry, bypassed the ministry to report directly to the Blue House shows that the two sides were in direct communication.

“Typically, reports to the Blue House are made by the Ministry of Defense through the chain of command,” a military official said, adding that there was “a possibility the direct reports to the Blue House were at the Blue House’s request.”

The explanation is consistent with a document from Mar. 10, 2012, titled “Results of BH Joint Meeting on Cyber Command” that was released on Sept. 24. The document asked the command to comply with a request by the office of the Blue House Secretary for National Defense that trend reports should be “provided to the Senior Secretary to the President for Foreign Affairs and Security [Chun Young-woo], the external strategy planning officer [Kim Tae-hyo], and the Secretary for Defense [Yoon Young-beom]” and “operation results should be reported only in person.”

The ministry’s latest interim investigation findings appear to provide more concrete evidence for what the document describes. The ministry said it plans to additionally investigate a sharp increase in the “independent external activity allowances” paid to staffers in the command’s Unit 530 for posting operations during 2012, a year that saw both general and presidential elections. Documents disclosed last month by Minjoo Party lawmaker Lee Cheol-hee showed the allowances to Unit 530 members starting at 30,000 won (US$26.20) in 2010 and rising to 50,000 won (US$43.70) in 2011 before being raised to 250,000 won (US$218.30) in 2012.

“The independent external activity allowances are [part of] an intelligence budget allocated to the Ministry of National Defense, but they are coordinated and approved by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and audited by the NIS,” the ministry explained.

“We are conducting an additional investigation into the circumstances of the 2012 increase and the possibility of NIS involvement,” it added.

When announcing the findings of its investigation into Cyber Command posting allegations in Dec. 2013 during the Park Geun-hye administration, the ministry said that the allowances were “paid from the ministry’s budget, not by the NIS” and that there was “no issue” with them.

The ministry also confirmed that the Cyber Command wrote around 3,000 internet posts in Feb. 2013 in support of then-Minister of Defense nominee Kim Byung-kwan. Kim was involved in allegations regarding corruption in procuring government defense contracts and was forced to withdraw his nomination.

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer

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