Bomb threats traced to IP address in Japan

Special police commandos search Osong KTX Station in North Chungcheong on Thursday after a threatening email from Japan said a bomb would go off at the station at 3:34 p.m. [YONHAP]

Police have bolstered security at major public facilities and landmarks and stepped up patrols at foreign embassies in response to a series of bomb threats.

According to the police, the latest bomb threat on Thursday, the fifth this month, was traced back to an IP address in Japan.

The emails sent to local media and embassies in Korea threatened to bomb the Japanese Embassy in Korea, Japanese schools and the Supreme Court, as well as subway stations and railroads.

The Russian Embassy in Seoul was also included on the target list, as was Osong KTX Station, heavily used by government employees commuting to Sejong where major government departments are located.

Police officers were dispatched to the embassy compounds in question Thursday.

The messages, released by the police, threatened to detonate pre-installed bombs that would go off between 3:34 p.m. Friday and 2:07 p.m. on Saturday.

No bombs or any detonating devices had been found in these locations as of press time Thursday.

The first bomb threat was sent to several Seoul city government employees on Aug. 7.

The email threatened to detonate a bomb installed within a 334-meter (1095-foot) radius of a library in downtown Seoul if Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung was not killed by 3:34 p.m. on Aug. 9.

It also claimed that several bombs were already planted in several places in Seoul, especially on subways or subway stations.

The email reportedly advised authorities that they would need to look thoroughly to find the bombs.

The email had a domain address from Japan.

The bomb threats were then made on Aug. 9 then on Aug. 14, the day before Korea’s Liberation Day, and also on Wednesday.

The targeted areas have also increased to include other city halls such as those in Daegu, Incheon, Seongnam, Anyang, Bucheon, Ansan and Goyang, as well as landmarks such as N Seoul Tower and the National Museum of Korea.

Japanese lawyer Takahiro Karasawa, whose email account was used in the threats, posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Aug. 9 that it seems his account was hijacked by an unknown extremist.

After confirming earlier this month that the threats were sent from an IP address in Japan, Korean authorities asked their Japanese counterparts for cooperation in investigations.

BY LEE HO-JEONG, ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]