Korail employee illegally accesses personal information about BTS's RM

RM, leader of boy band BTS [AP/YONHAP]

An employee of Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail) illegally accessed personal information about BTS's RM, the train operator said Thursday.

According to Korail, the employee browsed RM's train ticket reservations, his address and phone number — which are required when booking tickets online — 18 times over the course of three years from 2019.

In January 2021, the employee acquired information that RM took a KTX train from Seoul to Dongdaegu station. The employee admitted to visiting the train station to try and see RM, according to Korail.

The employee is stationed in the IT unit of the corporation in charge of the reservation system, giving them access to customer information.

Korail started an internal investigation after a report from staff that illegal acts were taking place.

The employee admitted to illegally accessing information "out of curiosity and regrets having done so," according to Korail. The employee has been removed from work that involves customer information and an internal penalty will follow.

"We are developing a new system that notifies those who view the information with a warning and demands them to submit reasons for viewing the information," Korail said in a statement. "We will have real-time tracking system established by the end of the year."

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]