For two months, special prosecutors in South Korea have been investigating a sitting governor who allegedly colluded with a power blogger who orchestrated online opinion rigging, in favor of the now-ruling Democratic Party.
On finally on Monday,... the special counsel revealed there's evidence the governor was indeed involved.
Oh Soo-young reports.
Gyeongsangnam-do Governor Kim Kyoung-soo was found to have colluded with an influential blogger nicknamed Druking to sway political sentiment in the lead up to the 2017 presidential election.
That's according to special counsel Huh Ik-Bum who shared the results of a 60-day independent probe on the case.

"One-point four million comments on some 81-thousand news articles were rigged with 'like' and 'unlike' clicks 99 million times systematically through a macro program."

Huh said the team procured records and testimonies confirming suspicions that Kim had attended the blogger's demonstration of a comment-rigging program called 'King Crab' in November 2016,... before giving the green light to further develop and use the software.
According to Huh's probe team,... the rigging activities began the following month and surged amid the political turmoil surrounding ex-President Park Geun-hye in early 2017,... hitting more than seven million counts in the months after her impeachment.
That's believed to have influenced the presidential election won by incumbent liberal leader Moon Jae-in.
Investigators also found that Kim had offered a diplomatic position for one of Druking's associates,... ahead of this year's local elections,... after continuous requests from the blogger.
While Kim has vehemently denied these allegations,... the probe team decided to indict the former politician without detention last week,... accusing him of conspiring with Druking and violating the national election law.
But on allegations that Kim received illegal political funds and also handed a certain amount of money to Druking at the 'King Crab' demonstration,... the special counsel said there was no evidence of such irregularities.
There was, however, evidence against incumbent presidential secretaries Song In-bae and Baek Won-woo over their alleged alliances with Druking.
Huh said his team will continue to work to substantiate their case against Kim, the blogger and others implicated in the scandal during their trial procedures.
Oh Soo-young, Arirang News.