40-Year-Old Man Who Threatened to Behead Yoon and Kim Geon-hee Sent to Prosecution

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Seoyul] A man who threatened to behead President Yoon Seok-yeol and First Lady Kim Keon-hee on the social networking service (SNS) Twitter has been sent to the prosecution.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 26th, the Yangcheon Police Station in Seoul announced that they had sent a man in his 40s, Mr. A, to the prosecution without detention on charges of threats on December 26 of last year.

Mr. A is accused of posting a message on August 20 of last year saying, "Incompetent Yoon Seok-yeol, Kim Keon-hee, behead and decapitate." He is also accused of posting a photo of First Lady Kim Keon-hee along with messages such as, "Rather commit suicide. If you don't want to become the second Shinzo Abe, live quietly and modestly. Otherwise, you will be shot like Park Chung-hee and Shinzo Abe."

On August 22, Mr. A also posted a message stating, "August 29 is the death day of Yoon Seok-yeol, Kim Keon-hee, Han Dong-hoon, Kwon Seong-dong, Joo Ho-young, and Joo Nak-young," which was investigated as a threat of terrorism against ruling party figures. Mr. A's account is currently not found on Twitter.

The police received a report from the National Intelligence Service on August 25 last year about a Twitter post attempting terrorism against President Yoon and others, and began an investigation before formal charges.

Although there was an opinion that it would be difficult to identify the suspect because Twitter's servers are located in the United States, the police reportedly received a response from Twitter and apprehended the suspect.