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A student thought he was smart for making swatting threats. But Incheon police were smarter.

Published: 02 Feb. 2026, 17:38 Updated: 02 Feb. 2026, 17:49

Members of the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency’s mobile detective unit, who received a special commendation from President Lee Jae Myung for arresting the suspect behind a false bomb threat at Daein High School in Incheon, pose for a photo. From left are Yoon Hee-cheol, Park Ju-wan, Ko Chung-sik, Choi Kyung-jun and Lee Ui-gyun. [BYUN MIN-CHUL]

For more than a week last October, emergency responders repeatedly rushed to a high school in Incheon after anonymous online messages warned that bombs had been planted on campus. Classes were suspended, students were sent home and fear spread through the school community.

The threats, which appeared multiple times on the website of Korea’s 119 emergency reporting center, later turned out to be false. Police identified the suspect as a student at the school and classified the case as "swatting."

Many in the United States associate swatting with making false reports to police to trigger an armed response by a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team targeting a particular individual or address. However, authorities define it as the malicious act of making false reports to deliberately trigger any large-scale emergency response to harass a target.

“It caused serious waste of administrative resources because police, firefighters and the military had to respond every time,” said Yoon Hee-cheol, a senior inspector with the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency who led the investigative team that arrested the student.

“Students couldn’t attend classes, were sent home or remained anxious. The damage was significant," Yoon added.

According to police, the suspect posted repeated online threats claiming that explosives had been planted at Daein High School in Incheon’s Seo District. In one post, investigators said, he mocked authorities, writing, “I routed through a VPN five times. You can’t do anything.”

As threats persisted and their impact widened, the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency assembled a dedicated task force that included its criminal mobile unit. Investigators soon encountered technical obstacles.

“After reviewing the case records, we saw that the suspect used a paid VPN and rerouted his IP address several times, which made it difficult to identify the suspect,” Yoon said.

Fire authorities search for explosives at Daein High School in Seo District, Incheon, on Oct. 13, 2025. [YONHAP]

Early in the investigation, officers canvassed the area around the school and gathered information from students and staff. That effort produced a tip pointing to a student who appeared "suspicious."

“Based on evaluations from people around him that he was highly skilled with the internet, we looked into him and found that he had already caused multiple problems online,” Yoon said.

Investigators later searched the student’s home, seized a laptop and recovered a smartphone that had been discarded nearby. Digital forensic analysis, however, proved challenging. The suspect refused to provide passwords for his devices, and the phone model was not widely used.

“He didn’t provide the smartphone password, and it wasn’t a commonly used device, so we had difficulties,” Yoon said. “He appears to have mimicked what he saw in media reports about influential figures refusing to hand over passwords during investigations.”

Police eventually discovered another source of evidence. Investigators learned that the Incheon Metropolitan City Office of Education had distributed free laptops to students.

“We found partial records on one of those laptops showing that [the suspect] and others had discussed planning the crime,” Yoon said.

The task force also worked with an overseas social media company that the suspects used to secure additional evidence. Confronted with the findings, the suspect later gave a partial confession, police said.

Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency in Namdong District, Incheon [YONHAP]

The suspect has been arrested and indicted on charges of making public threats and obstructing official duties through deception. His first court hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

Police said alleged accomplices who helped plan the threats are under investigation by provincial police agencies.

Yoon and his team recently received a special commendation from President Lee Jae Myung for their role in the case.

“Swatting crimes have been increasing, especially among teenagers,” Yoon said. “Investigative techniques have advanced, and even if it takes time, we will always catch the perpetrators.”

“Swatting is a serious crime that creates many innocent victims," he added. "Parents and education authorities need to take responsibility and guide children toward a healthy online culture.”

The Incheon case is not isolated. Across Korea last year, false bomb threats and swatting reports — anonymous warnings that claimed explosives had been planted at schools, transportation hubs and company buildings, including at Samsung, Kakao and Naver — surged, forcing repeated evacuations and large emergency responses.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY BYUN MIN-CHUL [[email protected]]