Police have initiated an investigation following an online threat claiming explosives were planted at the Ministry of National Defense.
The Yongsan Police Station in Seoul reported on Monday that they received notification of a post titled “Explosives Planted at ROK Ministry of National Defense” on the online community DC Inside at 9:30 p.m. the previous evening.
The threat specified a detonation time of 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Yongsan Base, located at 22 Itaewon-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. The post has since been removed from the site.
Police have heightened security measures around the Defense Ministry while working to trace the source of the post through its IP address.
This is not the first bomb threat. On December 18 at 8:48 a.m., a post claiming that explosives were placed at Kakao’s Pangyo, Kakao Jeju headquarters, and Naver was posted on Kakao’s Customer Service Center website.
The writer claimed to be a middle school student from Gwangju, but investigators believe this is a case of identity theft.
The student whose identity was allegedly stolen had already reported the misuse to police on December 8. The Gwangju Police Department is currently investigating this aspect of the case.
A similar threat targeting Kakao’s Pangyo office was posted on December 17 at 7:04 p.m. A subsequent search of the premises yielded no suspicious items or explosives.
Authorities suspect the same individual is behind these repeated threats. They have opted not to conduct additional searches involving special forces at the Kakao Pangyo office or Naver’s facilities in Bundang, Seongnam.
However, in response to the new threat against Kakao’s Jeju headquarters, a police bomb disposal unit has been deployed to sweep the location for any potential explosives.
Approximately 110 employees at Kakao’s headquarters have been evacuated and are expected to shift to remote work arrangements.
This series of threats began on December 15 when an individual claiming to be a high school dropout posted a message on Kakao’s CS Center board. The post threatened to have planted homemade explosives at Kakao’s Pangyo office and to assassinate a senior company official with a homemade firearm, causing a disturbance that led to all Kakao employees switching to remote work.
