A Financial Prophet Online Is Vilified in Reality

Is he the real Minerva? Many Koreans doubt he is. When he got arrested, many predicted that he must have been hired by the government and he would surely be financed by the government to study abroad. And, it turned out that he is coming to the U.S. to study English at a community college in Virginia, and then study economics at George Mason University. Minerva, who was able to read and analyze the 'Wall Street Journal' without any problem, needs to study English? His knowledge on economics and ability to analyze and read the trends surprised so many experts, but he just learned them through reading some books and surfing online, he didn't have a book on economics at home. How amazing! He must be a genius! He is a jobless, a 2-year college graduate, so the government used him to support its claim that only fools and losers write on the internet.

Some claim, based on the different writing styles, that the last posting by 'Minerva' was not by the real Minerva. The real Minerva was more straightforward in his writing, didn't use any lavish expressions, and made his sentences short. The last posting, however, was full of unnecessary expressions and inaccurate grammar. -nurungji

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Lee Ji-Un/Yonhap, via Associated Press

Park Dae-sung with his mother after his release from prison last month.

By CHOE SANG-HUN

Published: May 15, 2009

FOUR months ago, Park Dae-sung became South Korea’s most celebrated — and vilified — blogger, when he was arrested on charges of spreading false information on the Internet with malicious intent. Prosecutors accused Mr. Park, whose financial postings under the alias Minerva had attracted a cultlike following, of damaging the nation’s economy with his “extremely pessimistic forecasts.”

To read more, please go to http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/world/asia/16minerva.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1