South Korea arrests 173 suspects for spreading death threats online

SGGPO 08/18/2023 16:08

South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said that even causing public anxiety is a serious crime. He asked officials to take drastic measures to deal with such acts.

Police patrol during a baseball game in Gwangju, 267 kilometers south of Seoul. Photo: Yonhap

South Korean police have arrested 173 people suspected of posting death threats online and formally detained 20 of them. Nearly half of those arrested were teenagers, including children under 14 who were not charged with a crime.

The move comes after a series of recent stabbings in South Korea. South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo previously said that even causing public anxiety is a serious crime. He asked officials to take drastic measures to deal with such acts.

Yonhap news agency on August 18 quoted a source from the National Bureau of Investigation of Korea as saying that authorities have discovered a total of 399 posts containing death threats since the stabbing incident near Sillim subway station, southwest of Seoul, which left one person dead and three injured on July 21, and the stabbing incident that left one person dead and 13 injured at a store in Seongnam, south of Seoul on August 3.

On August 15, 39 police officers searched the Gocheok Sky Dome baseball stadium in Seoul until midnight after an 11-year-old girl posted a threat to stab people attending a concert at the stadium. According to the Korean National Police Agency, teenagers accounted for 52.3% of all suspects who spread death threats online.

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