NCSoft sends employees home after online threat

NCSoft headquarters in Pangyo, Gyeonggi [NCSOFT]

Game publisher NCSoft sent all employees home after an online threat was made against them on Monday.

“A report came in at Bundang Police Station in Gyeonggi that a threat comment against NCSoft employees was made during a YouTube live broadcast of an NCSoft game,” an NCSoft spokesperson said.

NCSoft reportedly posted a company-wide notice about the threat on the company’s online bulletin at around 12:30 p.m. and sent all employees home to work remotely until further notice. Details of the threat are undisclosed.

The company plans to take precautionary measures such as requesting the police to patrol the area more frequently and tightening building security.

Despite NCSoft headquarters being located in Pangyo, Gyeonggi, police authorities transferred the case to Gyeongbuk Provincial Police’s cyber investigation unit because police offices around Seoul were already swamped by previous online threat cases.

As of Monday, the National Office of Investigation has identified 431 online murder threats since July 21, when Jo Seon, 33, stabbed a random stranger in his 20s to death and injured three others near Sillim Station in southern Seoul.

Investigators apprehended 192 people who posted the threats and indicted 20 among them. Four out of ten who were apprehended were teenagers.

BY KIM JUNG-SEOK [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]