Ministry to push legal changes to punish threats, weapons possession

A man arrested for carrying a knife at Dongdaegu Station in Daegu earlier this week leaves a district court escorted by police on Wednesday after questioning. [NEWS1]

The Ministry of Justice announced Wednesday that it will establish legal provisions to punish murder threats and the possession of weapons in public, following back-to-back stabbings and threats of similar crimes posted online in recent weeks.

The ministry said it plans to revise the law related to the punishment of acts of public intimidation, such as murder threats posted on internet forums and social media. It also plans to enable measures to punish the possession of weapons that can kill or injure in public areas, including public transportation and crowded places, without a justifiable reason.

The ministry pointed to the recent stabbings and threats on social media that have sparked public anxiety.

"Despite the frequent use of social network services recently to make murder threats against the public, which have elevated public anxiety, there is concern that a vacuum may exist in directly punishing such acts due to the lack of regulations," the ministry said in a statement.

The measures follow recent random stabbings near Sillim Station in Seoul, and Seohyeon Station in Bundang, Gyeonggi.

On July 21, 33-year-old Jo Seon went on a stabbing rampage near Sillim Station in Gwanak District, southern Seoul, killing one and injuring three, all strangers.

On Aug. 3, 22-year-old Choi Won-jong killed one woman and injured 13 other people after he drove a car onto a sidewalk and rammed pedestrians near Seohyeon Station, before stabbing people inside a shopping mall.

Police investigating the case said Wednesday that it was difficult to conclude that this stabbing attack was a "copycat crime" of the Sillim Station incident, noting that Choi suffered from persecutory delusions. Nonetheless, Choi was confirmed to have searched for keywords such as "Sillim-dong murder" on his mobile phone according to police forensic analysis.

Currently, the prosecution and police are cracking down on a series of similar murder threats posted online, applying charges such as intimidation, obstruction of justice and premeditating murder. However, there has been criticism that the application of existing legal provisions depends on whether the victim is identified and if the actual crime plan is executed.

Through a revision of the law, such notices of planned murder can in itself become a crime.

The ministry said that it has accepted a proposal by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office to establish new criminal punishment provisions by referring to legislative precedents in the United States and Germany that penalize acts of intimidation against the public.

It said it will work to make it possible to punish the "act of publicly posting words and phrases that cause fear."

Dozens of notices threatening plans to conduct similar stabbings in crowded areas including subway stations were posted online last week.

Since the weekend, police apprehended 67 people for posting online murder threats. Many of the posts threatened copycat crimes, announcing similar indiscriminate stabbing rampages in crowded public places, namely major subway stations in the Seoul metropolitan area and major cities across the nation. Some posts threatened to bomb airports.

Celebrities have also recently become targets of murder threats, including Winter from girl group aespa. Democratic Party (DP) Chairman Lee Jae-myung also was the target of a threatening email, which said a bomb would be detonated in downtown Seoul if the former liberal presidential candidate is not killed.

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office said Wednesday six people, including two teenagers, who made murder threats online were arrested.

This also includes the man in his 20s who was arrested after threatening to kill 20 women at Sillim Station on an online forum last month.

Prosecutors said that posting threats of murder online is not just a "simple prank," but a crime that amplifies public anxiety and disturbs public order.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]