Yoo Byung-eun

Yoo Byung-eun (Korean: 유병언; Hanja: 兪炳彥,11 February 1941 – 12 June 2014) was a South Korean businessman, inventor, religious leader, and photographer. He was also known by his art name Ahae.^[3]

Yoo became the focus of Park Geun-hye's administration shortly after the sinking of MV Sewol in April 2014. Yoo and other Korean nationals were used as scapegoats in a nation-wide propaganda campaign designed to manage public opinion after the disaster.^[4][5] In official documents from the Blue House, the Defense Security Command (DSC) identified Yoo as a target to distract the public from its dissent over the Korean Coast Guard's failure to rescue passengers from the ferry.^[6][7] Yoo, who retired from his board position at Chonghaejin in 1997, was targeted in official communications prior to the conclusion of any investigation to manage public outrage and maintain government stability.^[7][8] During the campaign to find and discredit Yoo, the government purposely fed several large media companies information designed to focus public interest onto the manhunt for Yoo instead of the cause of the ferry sinking. In addition, the DSC performed illegal wiretaps, which has drawn comparisons to 2002 National Intelligence Service illegal wiretapping scandal.^[9] After a nationwide manhunt that was broadly reported on, Yoo's body was found in an orchard, the cause of death not known.^[10]