Is making a threat really a joke?
WARNING
A ruling was issued today on the civil appeal in this case.
The incident itself did not occur today.
The incident took place in 2023.
Is making a threat really a joke?
A court has ordered a man in his 30s who posted threats online saying he would carry out a “bomb attack” at five airports across South Korea, including Jeju International Airport, to pay more than 22 million won in damages.
-The court ruled that A must pay the state approximately 22.7 million won in damages-
Jeju District Court, Civil Division 5-2 (Presiding Judge Kim Kyung-tae)
On August 6 and 7, 2023, A posted messages on an internet site threatening bomb attacks at five airports across the country, including Jeju.
It was not limited to bomb threats. He also threatened to attack and kill people with a weapon.
A also used Tor to route his connection through overseas IP addresses and carefully attempted to cover his tracks by resetting his mobile phone and computer.
As a result,
the police sought compensation for the damages caused by A’s illegal acts.
The claim was based on the expenses incurred during the investigation of his unlawful conduct and related police operations.
A argued that the police were simply carrying out their duty to protect the lives and physical safety of the public, and therefore no actual damage had been caused by his actions.
The court did not accept this argument.
First, the criminal case:
He was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison, and the sentence was increased to 2 years and 6 months on appeal.
Then there was the civil case.
The Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit seeking 32 million won in damages for police officers’ allowances and fuel costs for the vehicles that were mobilized.
August 23, 2023
And today, the court issued its ruling in that civil case.
September 14, 2026
Nearly three years have passed.
Everyone, this is how exhausting a civil lawsuit can be.
And this was a lawsuit filed by the government itself.
He probably won’t, but
if A does not challenge the decision and does not appeal to the Supreme Court,
then A’s final legal consequences would be:
Criminal: 2 years and 6 months in prison
Civil, 1st Instance: 29.28 million won + delay damages
Civil, Appeal: 22,771,505 won + delay damages
So, what exactly are delay damages?
If A had not appealed,
the process would have been:
August 23, 2023 → First-instance ruling → Payment
But because A appealed,
it became:
**August 23, 2023 → First instance → Appeal → September 14, 2026, appellate ruling
You can think of the delay damages as interest resulting from the delay in payment during this period.
This case took place in 2023.
At that time, the crime of public intimidation had not yet been established.
Under the law today, making such a threat alone can result in
up to 5 years in prison or a fine of up to 20 million won.
Repeat offenders face enhanced punishment of up to 7 years and 6 months in prison or a fine of up to 30 million won.
Now, let’s take a closer look at what happened back then.
First of all, why did A do it?
This is not my speculation.
This was A’s answer during the police investigation.
“I wanted to see if the police could really catch me. I wanted to test them.”
!?!?!?!?
There has been plenty of speculation surrounding this.
Some have suggested that he was operating an illegal private gambling website and that he committed the crime to demonstrate how secure his system was, among other theories.
Most people assume that he must have had some deeper reason for doing something like this.
But I think those are simply speculations.
Why?
Because
if that had actually been the case,
I believe the investigation would have uncovered that as well.
However, there were no additional charges.
So, which five airports, including Jeju International Airport, were targeted?
He made one threat each against Incheon, Gimpo, Jeju, and Daegu airports,
and two threats against Gimhae International Airport.
The problem was that the threats resulted in 571 police officers being deployed.
Considering that, I can’t help but think that the 30 million won in damages initially sought was actually quite modest.
Even the cost of feeding the bomb-detection dogs must have amounted to hundreds of thousands of won.
So how was he caught despite routing his IP address through another country?
This was how A carried out the crime.
He used Tor to route his IP address through another location.
Immediately after posting the threats, he completely reset the laptop and mobile phone he had used to make the posts.
At first glance, it seems like the kind of thing that would make you think, “How could anyone possibly catch him?”
In fact, A later confessed to the crime, saying that he was convinced there was no way he could be identified.
What is Tor?
Tor is a program that routes internet traffic through multiple locations, making it possible to conceal a user’s actual IP address and increase anonymity online.
For those unfamiliar with the term, here’s a simple example.
Whenever you post something online, an internet address known as an IP address is associated with your connection.
Normally, there is no reason to worry about this.
Most people are simply using the internet without doing anything wrong.
You wouldn’t normally say that the government is monitoring you just because you have an ID card, a postal code, and CCTV cameras around you, would you?
But that IP address itself
can be concealed by using a program such as Tor to route the connection through other countries.
In other words, you may actually be using the internet from South Korea,
but when someone checks where the post was made,
it may appear to have originated from another country.
After concealing his IP address, A posted the threats
and then erased the traces from the devices he had used to make the posts.
Seems impossible to catch him, right?
Yes, someone using those kinds of precautions might not be caught easily.
But things change when telecommunications companies cooperate with investigators and the police put their full investigative capabilities into action.
It is true that when someone uses Tor to route their IP address, the telecommunications company cannot see exactly what that person did online through the Tor connection.
Domestic telecommunications companies operate the domestic network, after all.
But they can still determine
that the user connected to Tor.
And according to the investigation,
the telecommunications company was able to establish that the only user who had connected to Tor at the times when all six posts were uploaded was a man in his 30s.
Combined with the fact that
the devices associated with A had all been wiped when he was arrested,
investigators became convinced that A was the person responsible.
It had been only two weeks since he made the bomb threats.
Depending on how you look at it, two weeks could be considered a long time or a short time.
If he had actually planted and detonated a bomb,
the police would likely have mobilized even more resources and arrested him more quickly.
But that interpretation comes with one major assumption:
that the bomb had actually exploded.
So it is also possible to interpret the situation as meaning that two weeks passed before the first actual explosion would have occurred.
According to National Police Agency data, there were 177 online bomb-threat posts in 2025 alone.
They targeted a wide range of places and people, including celebrities’ homes, company buildings, subway stations, schools, and aircraft.
Even if the person responsible considers it nothing more than a prank or an act of frustration,
these are serious incidents because they require the deployment of significant numbers of police officers.
And because of that,
someone on the other side of the city who genuinely needs police assistance could potentially have to wait longer for help.
Of course, anyone who thinks that far ahead probably wouldn’t make a bomb threat against an airport in the first place.
But the penalties are now quite serious.
So don’t do it.
