[bratticus]

How delightfully primitive this culture is!

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Prosecutors to Probe if Doom Oracle Acted Alone
Prosecutors who arrested the pessimistic business oracle Park Dae-sung, better known by his Internet alias "Minerva," said they were investigating whether Park had any accomplices.

Park testified he personally wrote all of the postings made under the Minerva alias, and prosecutors tentatively concluded that he committed his acts alone. But they do not rule out that he may have made the postings critical of the government's handling of the economy at someone's request or with somebody else's help.

An official with the prosecutor's office said they were investigating carefully whether Park was the real Minerva, while not completely ruling out that he could have written the postings on someone else's behalf.

At a hearing for his arrest warrant on Saturday, Park said he made the online postings because he wanted to help small business owners and low-income earners who suffered during the Asian financial crisis. As he was being arrested, Park told reporters he was sorry for causing upset, although his intentions were pure. He added he wrote the postings based on his "subjective opinions."

Prosecutors and the court evaluate the Minerva incident as an example of a kind of idol worship in cyberspace, where the consensus-building structure is weak, that ended up negatively impacting Korea's entire economy. But debate continues within the legal and political communities whether Park's arrest was justified in a democracy.