College student said it was a spontaneous move, after he turned himself to police
South Korean police officials said Friday they have wrapped up their investigation into an online threat against President Lee Jae-myung during his campaign last month, after they found that it was just a prank by a teen to get attention.
The cybercrime unit of the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said it will soon hand over the case to the prosecution. The suspect turned himself in to the police and admitted the charges.
The suspect on May 26 wrote on the Ajou University page of the online board for college students across the country, "I'll pay whoever stabs Lee today money," at around 10:51 a.m. This was shortly before Lee was slated for a meeting with the students of the university.
No one actually attacked Lee, and he left the school unharmed at around 12:40 p.m. that day. Lee, who was stabbed in the neck in January of 2024, had been subject to series of threats during the presidential campaign but no actual attack occurred.
Police were able to pinpoint the person who wrote the problematic post fairly quickly, as the anonymous website mandates members to prove that they are affiliated with each universities via official documents. With the police launching investigation, the suspect confessed on May 27.
He said he wrote the posting at the spur of the moment to get attention, and he decided to turn himself in after he got scared when people wrote on the online board that they would report the case to the police.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
