SEOUL - SOUTH Korea's arrested popular Internet financial pundit pleaded not guilty on Saturday to charges of spreading false information online.

The 31-year-old, identified only as Park but better known here as 'Minerva' or the goddess of wisdom in the Greek myth, claimed he was trying to help those who had suffered as a result of the current financial turmoil.

State prosecutors arrested Park on Wednesday on charges of spreading 'groundless' allegations that the country's currency, the won, was imperiled.

He took the defensive after being questioned by a Seoul court Saturday as prosecutors sought a warrant to extend his detention.

'I wrote articles in a bid to help those people alienated from the government - small merchants, individuals and laymen who had suffered from the financial crisis,' he told journalists at the court.

'I did not intend to obtain any economic gains through these writings. I accordingly do not admit my guilt.'

Park has written more than 200 economic commentaries in the past few months and gained massive popularity online following his predictions of the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers.

His writings also warned about the won's sharp depreciation and the local stock market crash.

State prosecutors arrested him on Wednesday, citing one of his posts which they said had spread 'groundless' facts about the frail local currency.

Park irritated authorities with his sharp criticism of the government's economic policy and its intervention in the foreign exchange market.

On Dec 29, Park wrote the government had forced key financial institutions and exporters to stop buying dollars, in order to prop up the won.

The government was forced to issue an angry denial.

'Minerva' was rumoured to be a retired financial market worker with a foreign degree given the technical accuracy of his work.

Prosecutors identified him as a jobless man whose knowledge of foreign exchange markets was acquired entirely through self-education after graduating from a two-year engineering community college course.

His arrest reignited a debate over freedom of speech in cyberspace, amid the tightening of regulations in South Korea.

Those who spread false reports or stories on the Internet can be sentenced to five years in prison or a fine of 50 million won (S$55,830). -- AFP