“The Dark Side of Moon: Anatomy of Moon’s Election” is the second article of a ten-part series to bring light to the fluid political situation in South Korea. In this segment, Moon Jae-in’s election will be discussed.
How did the Moon camp win the election? They followed a simple formula. The flow chart below illustrates their step-by-step strategy.
A.Media Control
As it is the case with revolutions throughout history, the first step for the “candlelight” revolutionists was to control the media. It is crucial for any revolutionists to occupy media outlets as the first order of business. Bolsheviks did it during the October Revolution in 1917.
In South Korea, there are approximately ten publicly supported TV broadcasting entities. The media industry as a whole, including print, online press and radio stations, have strong labor unions (130 labor unions with 14,000 members). The media labor unions come under the auspices of the General Labor Union.
Over the years, extreme-left ideologues infiltrated and dominated the labor unions. The labor organizations overtook mainstream media in South Korea, including KBS TV, MBC TV, Yonhap, TBS, YTN, KTV, EBS, and National Assembly TV, all of which are supported by the government. The labor leaders controlled assignments and job placement via committees, and reporters and news producers had no choice but to follow the leadership in producing pro-Moon materials.
Consequently, print media and broadcast media alike were positioned in such a way that the journalists with far-left point of view ruled the day. They dutifully disseminated materials that were often biased and false, mostly derogatory toward Park Geun-hye. This false propaganda was a critical part of her impeachment downfall. (Refer to Case against Park Geun-hye: A Cautionary Tale of Political Persecution .)
Such was the prevailing wind at the time, and if anyone tried to correct the mistakes in reporting or present opposing views, they were mercilessly ostracized in the media, even threatened personally on some occasions.
n short, objective journalism remained none-existent, while the labor unions continuously pressured the media to repeat anti-Park propaganda throughout the electoral process. Most notably, the press painted Park as an evil president who was responsible for the deaths of three hundred plus high school students during their outing on the Sewol ferry boat to Jeju Island. Meanwhile, the Moon camp presented itself as the protector of justice and equity for the average person as they vilified the corporations. They successfully cultivated an image for themselves as an honest team who had devoted their entire lives to the democratization of South Korea, while at the same time propelling the image of Moon as a dogged human rights lawyer.
B.Internet Manipulation
The internet system in South Korea is one of the best in the world. Its ability to handle large volumes of data at high speed is amazing, and so is the extent of the interaction by the netizens. Politics is one of the favorite topics for Korean netizens around the world, especially around election time. Netizens actively participate in expressing their thoughts with respect to candidates and issues. They seek approval as represented by the number of clicks on the “like” insignia with the thumbs-up. So, public opinion is formed by way of trending thoughts and opinions. However, the digital venue is susceptible to abuse by the unscrupulous, greedy people who would do anything to gain advantage.
Moon’s camp sought unfair advantage by fabricating favorable opinions among the netizens. They devised an algorithm called “king crab” to instantly generate millions of positive public opinions on behalf of candidate Moon. A clandestine blogger group known by a code name “Druking” developed the software and posted favorable comments for then candidate Moon via 2,000 ID’s masquerading as the innocent public, utilizing hundreds of IP addresses located outside South Korea.
The campaign process was intense. At one time, the candidate Ahn Chol-su’s support numbers came within 3% of Moon. This trend was turned upside down with an interjection of a meme by Druking that “Ahn was an avatar of Lee Myung-bak” (an unpopular former president with corruption issues). The meme went viral with the help of the king crab algorithm, and Ahn’s numbers declined in a hurry.
So, who was behind Druking?
The Minjoo Party. Kim Kyoung-soo, a trusted member in Moon’s inner circle, former National Assemblyman and then the governor of Kyungnam Province, was in charge of the opinion fabrication caper. Kim and Druking were caught and tried in court, and the courts found them guilty of violating election laws a year after the election.
C.War of Images
The Moon camp’s main thrust was to build and implant in the minds of the electorate an image of a dogged pursuer of justice and equity. That was the theoretical foundation for Moon’s drive to “purge the corruption called for by the candlelight revolution.” The Moon team pounded the electorate with this slogan day in and day out. The electorate bought the idea that the Park administration was corrupt, and that Moon was their savior.
Ultimately, their campaign stuck with the electorate, and Moon garnered 41.4% of the vote, and became the 12th president of South Korea on May 10, 2017.
From the start, the Moon administration made it clear that its focus was pointed northward per his statement as a candidate, which read, “If I am elected, I will go to North Korea first.” The electorate took his speech as his way of pursuing peace with the North and had not paid much attention to it.
Three years have passed since the election, and his declaration has become more than a mere gesture. He truly meant it. I will address this aspect of his legacy in coming issues. The next segment will deal with the staff he built around him. Stay tuned.
John Cha lives and writes in Oakland, California. He has written several volumes of biographies about Korean and American leaders and is an award-winning translator of Korean literature into English.
