A man in his 50s has been arrested for spreading thousands of false online posts claiming the Sewol ferry disaster, the Itaewon crowd crush, and the Jeju Air passenger jet crash were fabricated, and for mocking the bereaved families.
The National Office of Investigation under the Korean National Police Agency said Wednesday that it had arrested the man, identified only as A, on charges of insult and defamation.
According to police, A is suspected of repeatedly posting messages on major domestic online communities and platforms from 2022 through this year, alleging that the Sewol, Itaewon, and passenger jet disasters were fabricated.
Investigators found that A used expressions such as "Sewol was a rigged hoax against the public," "the passenger jet accident was a corpse-peddling scam," and "the Itaewon incident was a corpse game staged with dummies" in his false posts.
The investigation determined that A had written approximately 3,000 such posts in total. Police believe he stoked hatred and distrust toward the bereaved families by repeatedly attaching photos and videos from the disasters while claiming the events were fabricated.
The bereaved families told investigators that they had "suffered severe psychological shock and humiliation from posts denying the disasters themselves," reporting prolonged secondary victimization.
Police determined that the case constitutes a serious crime that distorted social disasters and mass-distributed false information, causing social conflict and confusion. This marks the third arrest of a suspect related to a social disaster since the launch of the Korean National Police Agency's Secondary Victimization Crime Investigation Division.
Police said they plan to strengthen cooperation with domestic and international platforms to track down those who write malicious posts related to social disasters, and will respond firmly with detention as a principle for repeat and malicious posters.
"Repeatedly spreading false information by using social disasters as material for mockery is a serious crime that goes beyond the realm of freedom of expression," said Park Woo-hyun, cyber investigation review officer at the Korean National Police Agency. "We will track down to the end and hold accountable those who maliciously distort national pain and incite hatred and confusion online."
