Armored Vehicles Deployed at Airports, Massive Damages Incurred... Man in His 30s Ordered to Pay 30 Million Won for Terror Threats

Posted Bomb Threats Targeting Five Major Airports

Accessed Site via Foreign IP to Evade Police Tracking

A man in his 30s who posted threats of bomb attacks at major airports nationwide and was sentenced to prison has now also been ordered to pay tens of millions of won in damages to the government.

According to Yonhap News on March 27, the Jeju District Court Civil Division 20 (Presiding Judge Shin Dong-ung) recently delivered a partial ruling in favor of the plaintiff in the first trial of a damages lawsuit filed by the Republic of Korea against Mr. A, a man in his 30s. The court ordered Mr. A to pay approximately 29.28 million won in compensation and delayed damages to the Republic of Korea.

According to the indictment, Mr. A was accused of posting six messages threatening bomb attacks and murders at five airports—Jeju, Gimhae, Daegu, Incheon, and Gimpo International Airports—on an online community forum between 9:07 p.m. on August 6, 2023, and 12:42 a.m. the following day, for about 3 hours and 35 minutes.

In his first post, Mr. A claimed, "Tomorrow at 2 o'clock, I will go to Jeju Airport for a bomb attack. I have already planted a bomb at Jeju Airport, and I will stab people coming out of the airport with a weapon." Investigations revealed that Mr. A majored in computer-related studies and, in an attempt to evade police tracking, accessed the forum via an overseas IP address. After committing the crime, he also wiped his computer and mobile phone data.

Initially, Mr. A vehemently denied the charges, but after being presented with objective evidence, he admitted, "I wanted to test whether the police could catch me. I wrote multiple threatening posts because I thought it would take more attention for the police to start tracking me." As a result of these posts, large-scale searches were conducted at five airports nationwide, including Jeju Airport, even deploying armored vehicles, leading to significant waste of public resources. The Ministry of Justice determined that the damages amounted to approximately 32.3 million won and filed a lawsuit against Mr. A for compensation.

Meanwhile, Mr. A, who was indicted and detained on charges of obstructing the execution of official duties by fraudulent means and violating the Aviation Security Act, was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison in the first trial. However, the sentence was increased to 2 years and 6 months in prison on appeal.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.