“Online troll farm activities of Rhee-Park School tracked back to LDP”: Far-right party found to be behind online bot farm

One month before South Korea’s 21st presidential election last June, Newstapa used undercover reporting to expose an illegal online comment operation run by the far-right history education group “Rhee-Park School.” Rebirth School operated an illegal comment unit known as the “June 3 Freedom Victory Comment Corps,” abbreviated as the “Jaseungdan.”
Every day from 6 a.m. until midnight, Jaseungdan members posted comments on the latest Naver news articles and clicked “like” on comments in an organized effort to manipulate which comments became the most popular and influence online public opinion. Most of the comments attacked Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung and Reform Party candidate Lee Jun-seok while defending People Power Party candidate Kim Moon-soo.
A police investigation began immediately after the report, and the Rhee-Park School trial opened one year later, in June of this year. During the proceedings, new information emerged about the previously unidentified forces behind Rebirth School’s comment operation.
The organization identified during the trial was the Liberty Democratic Party, a political party established with the participation of far-right figures associated with the New Right movement. Attorney Ko Young-joo, who served as the party’s leader until recently, is a former national security prosecutor known for saying that “Moon Jae-in is a communist” and previously served as chairman of the Foundation for Broadcast Culture under the Park Geun-hye administration. The party’s secretary-general, Lee Seok-woo, also served as chairman of the Community Media Foundation during the Park administration and had openly expressed anti-union views.
It was at a meeting of the Liberty Democratic Party’s advisory council that a proposal was discussed to “organize online comment activities ahead of the presidential election.” The proposal was introduced by Lee Seok-bok, a Liberty Democratic Party adviser, retired general and Korea Military Academy graduate who also heads the conservative military organization known as the Korea Military Academy National Salvation Comrades Association.
Secretary-General Lee Seok-woo subsequently conveyed the proposal to Rebirth School representative Son Hyo-sook. Lee testified in court that “a concrete implementation plan was proposed to educate and organize party members and organization members to engage in online comment activities, and there was also a proposal to pay allowances to young participants.”
In fact, training for the comment operation was held at the Liberty Democratic Party office on May 3 last year, and 18 teams pairing younger and older participants were formed. Their roles were divided: younger participants posted comments on the latest news articles, while older participants clicked “like” on those comments. During the month immediately preceding the presidential election, the younger participants wrote more than 3,300 confirmed comments. Some individuals posted more than 900 comments.
Money was also paid after the comment activities. The younger members of the comment operation received approximately 400,000 won each in “activity expenses.” The money also came from the Liberty Democratic Party. Adviser Lee Seok-bok and Secretary-General Lee Seok-woo each deposited 2 million won into Rebirth School’s bank account, and the money was then distributed among members of the comment operation.
But was this really the first time that a particular political force had financed and organized people and then deployed them in an online campaign to influence public opinion?
Newstapa’s investigation found that government-aligned organizations and key individuals who had received illegal support from the National Intelligence Service and the presidential office during the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations had reappeared around Rhee-Park School. One such organization was the Liberty Alliance, which received funding for its activities from the Freedom College Scholarship Foundation, the predecessor of Rebirth School. Liberty Alliance representative Lee Hee-beom and Rhee-Park education director Choi Jeong-mi, who was involved in recruiting and managing members of the comment operation, had direct or indirect connections to organizations that had previously received support from the National Intelligence Service.
The current trial concerns Rhee-Park School’s online comment manipulation operation. What the reporters uncovered, however, was a broader and longer-running network for manipulating public opinion.
The remnants of the forces involved in the National Intelligence Service’s past public-opinion manipulation scandal remain active through various online and offline activities, helping form the far-right movement and rebuilding their influence.