Police officers who investigated fake news claiming the government would force the sale of dollars due to an economic crisis stemming from the Middle East have received special performance rewards. The National Police Agency announced today (July 13) that it had awarded a total of 97 million won across 11 cases following a special performance reward committee meeting held on the 7th. The special performance reward system for police, which has been in effect since January, has now been issued for the sixth time this year. Rewards of up to 30 million won are available. Inspector Lee and two others from the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency's Cyber Crime Investigation Unit 2 received a reward of 15 million won after referring five individuals to the prosecution on charges of violating the Framework Act on Telecommunications for spreading the rumor of forced dollar sales. The National Police Agency reported that the investigation team initially faced difficulties as there were almost no clues to identify the suspects, and there were few similar precedents or reference cases related to the spread of false information. Inspector Lee said, "We moved away from the existing method of focusing on identifying posters based on data secured from internet service providers, and instead shifted the investigation toward reverse-tracking the creation and spread of the false posts, which allowed us to identify the suspects." The National Police Agency also reported that President Lee Jae-myung, after receiving a report on the achievements in responding to false and manipulated information related to the Middle East situation, praised the team by saying, "Send them some pizza," and that the pizza actually arrived that same day. The investigators shared their thoughts, saying, "We were half-doubting, but pizza under the President's name arrived at the office that afternoon, and I think it will remain in our memories for a long time." Three officers including those from the Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency's Cyber Crime Investigation Unit, who apprehended 63 people (5 arrested) operating gambling sites worth 1.3 trillion won, and three officers including Inspector Park from the Ulsan Provincial Police Agency's Crime Prevention and Response Division, who apprehended a group of 23 people (3 arrested) who operated a gambling site with 3.3 billion won in stakes for three weeks, each received 7 million won. In addition, 12 million won was awarded to three officers including Inspector Park from the Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency's Cyber Crime Investigation Unit, who arrested two individuals for posting and distributing approximately 120,000 pieces of child and adolescent sexual exploitation material. Other police officers also received rewards for cases including: ▲ investigation of revenge-related crimes (three officers including Senior Inspector Kang from the Incheon Provincial Police Agency's Metropolitan Crime Investigation Unit, 10 million won reward) ▲ resolution of unusual or protest-related complaints against field officers (three officials including Administrative Officer Hwang from the National Police Agency's Audit Division, 10 million won reward) ▲ and the apprehension of high-value delinquent dealers of unregistered vehicles (three officers including Senior Inspector Jin from the Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency's Traffic Division, 7 million won reward). Yoo Jae-sung, Acting Commissioner General of the National Police Agency, said, "We will continue to actively identify public officials who achieve special results that the public can feel, and firmly establish a performance-oriented organizational culture." (Photo: Yonhap News TV, Yonhap News)