The Korean blogger “Minerva” (aka Park Dae Sung) has been arrested for allegedly destabilising currency markets! And hurting the nation’s credibility! This one really is hard to make up. “Minerva” has achieved guru status in South Korea during the last year, as he has churned out predictions (right and wrong) on how the economy would develop. Apparently he now has gone too far:

The commentary that got him in trouble was his claim on Dec. 29 that the government issued an “emergency order” to financial firms and major corporations to stop buying U.S. dollars in a dire effort to arrest the fall of the Korean won. The government was forced to issue a denial to calm the market, though officials had previously appealed to large companies to stop hoarding dollars.

“Minerva”, when he finally was found, turned out to be a “soft-spoken 31-year-old Internet buff in between jobs who holed up at home reading mail-order books on finance and scouring the Web.”

UPDATE: Global Voices has reactions from the Korean blogosphere.