What is the legal application for ‘series of bomb threats’?

Recently, terrorist threats about installing explosives in multi-use facilities such as department stores and parks used by an unspecified number of people have been spreading throughout the country like a trend.

According to Yongin Eastern Police Station, on the morning of the 13th, a fax was sent to the Daejeon Immigration Office saying, ‘We will blow up Everland Resort,’ and the police launched an emergency search. Previously, a fax was received stating that explosives were installed at a department store in Gwangju Metropolitan City on the 11th and at the Olympic Park gymnastics stadium on the 10th.

Posts warning of terrorism and crimes are also prevalent online. On the 5th, an article was posted on an Internet community saying, “Explosives were installed at the main branch of Shinsegae Department Store and will be blown up at 3 p.m.,” causing an evacuation commotion. It was revealed that the author of the article was a middle school student living on Jeju Island.

This phenomenon increased rapidly after the stabbing incident at Seohyeon Station in Bundang in 2023, and at that time, the National Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency conducted special security activities for two months starting in August and conducted intensive crackdowns. As a result, during that period, 571 cases of violent crime warnings were discovered, 298 people were arrested, and 28 of them were detained.

However, due to limitations in applying charges in such investigations, the suspects were only punished lightly, including fines.

Regarding this, legal experts analyzed that there would have been difficulties in application because the requirements for establishing a crime varied depending on interpretation.

Kim Dong-jin, a lawyer at Daeryun Law Firm (Limited), explained, “In the past, we were not used to committing crimes without asking questions, so it was difficult to trust the murder notice, and we thought it was unlikely to be realized.” He added, “As the motivation for enacting the crime of intimidation did not include posts warning of murder, it was difficult to punish the author of the post for this crime.”

He continued, “A variety of charges can be applied, such as obstruction of official duties by hierarchy, cyberstalking, preliminary crime of murder, and the crime of creating anxiety under the Information and Communications Network Act, but as we saw earlier, there is a problem that it does not fully fit these crimes because it is not a crime legislated with the assumption of a crime such as a crime notice,” and added, “In particular, there were parts where it was difficult to lead to punishment because it was difficult to easily infer intentionality. The crime of public intimidation is what supplemented this part.”

In fact, since March of this year, the ‘public intimidation crime’ has been implemented to ensure that strong punishment is imposed on crimes that threaten an unspecified number of people. The crime of public intimidation stipulates that if a person threatens to harm the life or body of an unspecified number of people, he or she will be punished by imprisonment for up to 5 years or by a fine of up to 20 million won.

In addition, such crimes result in civil liability as well as criminal punishment. This is because most of the threats and reports turn out to be false, leading to a waste of administrative power.

Attorney Kim said, “If a person is found guilty through a criminal court, he or she will be held liable for damages caused by the tort in accordance with Article 750 of the Civil Act. If the perpetrator is a minor, his or her parents or other supervisors will be held liable for damages in accordance with Article 755 of the Civil Act.”

However, Attorney Kim's position is that it is difficult to view civil action as a realistic solution. He analyzed, “If at least hundreds of millions of won in administrative power is wasted due to the deployment of police, it is virtually impossible for one family to shoulder the national cost, so it is difficult to see it as a realistic recovery measure.”

Reporter Kwon Byeong-seok (bsk730@fnnews.com)

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