The fate of online Minerva

There is an interesting debate going on presently in my home country. Actually, by now, the debate has grown into international stage since it was picked up by many other foreign news media including BBC, WSJ, FT etc.

OK... Here's a story about a famous Korean blogger, known by his pen name ‘Minerva’.

When I visited Seoul last time in December for winter vacation, my father asked me whether I was aware of the identity of Minerva. ( well, he thinks her daughter knows every rumor related to news, only because she works for a newspaper. )

“No. I don’t even know what Minerva is”, I answered.
Disappointed dad explained what was happening in online community. (Believe me, he is not a very tech savvy guy. The fact that he knows something implies everyone else does.)

According to my father, a blogger named Minerva had posted around 200 comments last year and predicted the imminent collapse of Lehman Brothers, the sharp falls in Korea’s won currency, the national stock market. By that time, most of he had forecast proved to be right. Not only his accurate prediction, but his writings were sprinkled with jargon that suggested he was an economic expert. He drew a cult like following. ( his webpage had more than 40 million visitors a day.)

Even the Korean finance minister, Kang Man-su, admitted that Minerva was making a reasonable point and he said he wanted to meet Minerva in person.

That was the story I had heard from my dad.

Around two weeks later ( I mean after my arrival in LA), I got news that police arrested the Minerva!! And my first reaction was “Why?”, my second reaction was “who is it?”.


Minerva turned out to be an unemployed- 30 year old guy who graduated from junior college with a major in information and communication. He confessed that he was the ‘Minerva’, but he merely collected information from various newspapers and rewrote it.

As of today, prosecutors charged him with spreading false information that they alleged damaged the country’s foreign exchange market and undermined the nation’s credibility. (Minerva posted comments in December that government had banned major financial institution from buying US dollars.)

This blogger’s arrest ignited a debate about freedom of speech in cyber space and lots of talks are going on. Here are some articles offering the details.


I just wonder what would have happened, if Minerva had not attracted so much attention across the web… or if Minerva had been a real economist or journalist?