Report: Fraud likely in South Korea election

FPI / September 29, 2020

The April 15, 2020 South Korean election resulted in an overwhelming victory (180 out of 300 seats) for leftist President Moon Jae-In's ruling Democratic Party (DP) over the main opposition UFP.

The DP majority is enough to pass any legislation Moon desires and could revise the country's constitution if it can peel off just three more votes in the National Assembly.

Observers noted instantly that the election appeared to have been rigged by the pro-China Democratic Party. More than 130 lawsuits have been filed seeking to overturn the results.

While there may be no "smoking gun," there is ample evidence that fraud "probably happened" in the April 15 election, Grant Newsham reported for the Center for Security Policy on Sept. 23.

Before dismissing fraud charges as sour grapes by the losing party and its candidates, "it’s worth considering the evidence, which does raise serious and credible concerns that the Moon administration working with China ‘fixed’ the election," Newsham wrote.

Newsham continued: "Could we be seeing a quiet but systematic effort – led by a committed core of South Korean hardline leftists represented by Moon Jae-In and a coterie of longtime associates to turn the Republic of Korea into a one-party state? A further objective of this consolidation of power, so the theory goes, is to unify South Korea with North Korea, and to align South Korea (and a unified Korea) with the People’s Republic of China – with whom there is seen a 'common destiny.' "

Moon and his leftist allies in South Korea "have made considerable progress towards controlling the levers of governance and power in South Korea," Newsham wrote. "This includes dominating the media, the judiciary, the intelligence service, the National Election Commission, and even putting the South Korean military on notice with the arrest of a four-star general three years ago on  questionable abuse of power and corruption charges, for which he was eventually found not-guilty. The Moon administration has used libel laws, tax audits, and regulatory powers to rein in free speech and bring the media and other critics to heel."

Still, Moon needed the National Assembly, where until the April elections had a nominally conservative opposition in the UFP which "served as a counterweight to the left and some of its leaders’ more sinister objectives," Newsham wrote.

While South Korean media and most major media in the U.S. dismissed or ignored the charges of election fraud in April's vote,  Newsham's investigation found that those raising alarm bells over the vote included a "mix of professors, lawyers, statisticians, computer programmers, data analysts, software and semiconductor engineers, politicians, journalists, and ‘regular’ citizens – including a former leftist who spent time on the run from South Korea’s military regime. Even a large number of academics (not exactly known as conservative by nature) have joined in."

Fraud suspicions focus in large part on the Electronic Counting Machines (ECM’s) used at voting sites.

Analysts claim the machines can be hacked or manipulated, to include via remote access. Chinese-made Huawei components are said to be in the machines and/or attached laptop computers.

One analyst’s brief examination indicated the ECM’s are, in fact, high-performance machines capable of far more than just sorting and counting ballots. Election officials allowed the analyst’s examination only after citizens blockaded a voting site in Gure City to prevent the ECM’s from being removed.

"A video exists of an ECM counting ballots. Blank ballots are being counted as Democratic Party votes and ballots with United Freedom Party votes are being counted as votes for the DP," Newsham noted.

Ballots used for early voting and mail voting in South Korea have QR codes imprinted.

Analsysts "consider QR codes to be vulnerable to manipulation – and it is particularly hard to detect manipulation as well. Indeed, the state of Colorado in the United States prohibits QR codes on ballots for these very reasons. Another concern with QR codes is the potential for discovering a voter’s identify via the QR code on the individual ballot," Newsham noted.

There were reportedly 40 districts where DP candidates got 20-30 percent more early votes than their opponents – and every election went against the opposition candidates and for the DP candidate.

"In a case of suspicious symmetry, challengers point out that the DP got on average 12 percent more votes during early voting compared to election day voting. Meanwhile, UFP got on average 12 percent less votes during early voting than on election day. The difference between early voting and election day voting should normally be much closer – usually around 2-3 percent – according to statisticians alleging manipulation," Newsham wrote.

Adding to the suspicions are allegations that closed circuit TV (CCTV) cameras in early voting polling locations were covered up during the two-day early voting period for ‘personal privacy’ reasons. The cameras were reportedly not covered during election day voting – "when there presumably was no less need for personal privacy protections," Newsham noted.

Other claims include 37 districts where there were more votes than voters.

Moon's ruling DP party reportedly made use of so-called Big-Data prior to the election to gather a detailed understanding of the electoral landscape in South Korea. Some observers said that Chinese companies, such as Tencent, were involved with the DP in the Big Data analysis efforts.

Newsham noted "there hasn’t been much interest inside or outside of South Korea in digging into" the mountain of allegations of voter fraud on April 15, 2020.

"Not surprisingly the Moon administration dismisses charges of election rigging as ‘fake news’ and ‘conspiracy theories.’ But like Sherlock Holmes’s ‘dog that didn’t bark,’ what the Moon administration is not doing is noteworthy," Newsham wrote.

"Moon officials are not addressing and refuting the specific charges even though the allegations of manipulation via ECM’s, other hardware, software, and QR codes as well as the suspicious statistical voting patterns are subject to scientific examination and repudiation (or even confirmation) using one’s own experts."

The Moon administration "might have ordered a thorough recount using paper ballots in several hotly contested districts in an attempt to allay suspicions," Newsham added. "It has not. Of course, given allegations of huge numbers of fraudulent or counterfeit ballots, even a ‘paper’ recount may not be enough to resolve things. But rather than answering or addressing the claims of fraud and manipulation, the Moon administrating has instead brought charges of libel and interference with election process against journalists and at least one losing candidate who challenged what he claims is a suspicious election outcome."

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