Julian Assange offers to help South Korea set up government-backed WikiLeaks

Julian Assange has recently become fairly active on social media after activating a long dormant Twitter account. The WikiLeaks founder on 22 February tweeted a post, offering to help South Korea set up a Korean version of WikiLeaks.

The offer came after South Korean presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung reportedly proposed a government-backed organisation, similar to WikiLeaks, to help protect whistleblowers.

Lee reportedly claimed that government staff, who leaked information to the press, should be protected and not prosecuted. He added that a South Korean version of WikiLeaks could offer whistleblowers protection of their identities and encourage others to come forward and leak information about corruption, UPI reported.

"The reality is brave informants are suffering every day, without receiving proper protection," Lee reportedly wrote in a Facebook post. Lee added that the journalists and the nation's auditing agency that exposed Samsung's alleged ties to a presidential corruption scandal are not afforded with proper protection.

He also added that a website that would allow people to anonymously report corruption and leak other information could help protect them. Lee proposed that the site would be designed to protect the whistleblower's personal information by assigning them a new email account. The site would also allow them to provide information directly to the government via a presidential "hotline".

Despite Lee's outspoken and firm stance on corruption, he has reportedly slipped in the polls and is currently behind current frontrunner Moon Jae-in. However, his latest proposal appears to have garnered him Assange's support.