SEOUL (AFP) — South Korean prosecution authorities said Thursday they had arrested a popular Internet pundit on charges of spreading "groundless" allegations that the country's currency, the won, was imperilled.
The "netizen" who uses the alias Minerva caused a stir over the past few months with more than 200 postings about the country's financial crunch and the global economic crisis.
Minerva, who was rumoured to be a retired financial market worker, was in fact a 30-year-old jobless man whose knowledge about foreign exchange markets was acquired entirely through self-education, a prosecutor said.
Previously, news reports speculated that he was a retired financial executive in his 50s or 60s who held a foreign academic degree.
Prosecutors said they would disclose more information about the suspect when he was charged, probably Friday, but news reports did not make clear when he would appear in court.
Minerva drew a large Internet audience with postings that accurately predicted the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September, the won's sharp depreciation and the local stock market's crash.
His writings irritated authorities with their sharp criticism of the government's economic policy and its intervention in the foreign exchange market.
On December 29, Minerva said the government had forced key financial institutions and exporters to stop buying dollars, in order to prop up the won.
The claim obliged the Ministry of Strategy and Finance to issue an angry denial.
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