SEOUL, Dec. 11 — Police will crack down on election law violations from Tuesday as registration of potential candidates for April’s general election begins this week, officials said Monday.
The National Investigation Agency said it would set up a task force to step up intelligence gathering on illegal activities related to the election and work with local election watchdogs and the chief prosecutor’s office to crack down on election law violations.
In particular, it will target bribery, the spread of disinformation, election violence, the illegal mobilisation of groups to campaign and the involvement of public officials in election campaigns, which could seriously undermine the impartiality of the elections.
It also plans to monitor social media to prevent fake news from influencing public opinion in the election, and to crack down on cyber-terrorist crimes, including hacking or distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on the National Election Commission or party websites.