Bomb threats targeting Naver, Kakao, Samsung put authorities on alert

Naver told employees to work from home after a bomb threat was posted online. A post was uploaded to Kakao's customer service center website at around 8:48 a.m., claiming that explosives had been planted at Naver and Kakao offices, police said.

Naver headquarters in Bundang District, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, on Nov. 27 [NEWS1]

Police launched investigations Thursday after a series of online bomb threats were posted targeting three major technology companies — Naver, Kakao and Samsung Electronics.

A message was posted on Kakao's customer service website at around 11:29 a.m., which threatened to bomb Samsung Electronics’ headquarters and kill its chairman, Lee Jae-yong.

"I will blow up Samsung Electronics’ headquarters in Suwon, Gyeonggi, and shoot Chairman Lee Jae-yong with a homemade gun," the post said.

Police dispatched officers to Samsung Electronics’ headquarters to conduct on-site checks, including reviewing security camera footage at key locations. After assessing the situation as posing a low level of risk, police did not carry out a full building search and instead increased patrols around the site.

Earlier in the day at around 8:48 a.m. on the same Kakao platform, another bomb threat was posted, according to police. It claimed explosives had been planted at Naver and Kakao offices. Authorities responded by searching the Naver Cloud headquarters building in Bundang District, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, but they found no suspicious items as of Thursday afternoon.

Naver Cloud issued a notice Thursday advising employees to work remotely. The company instructed staff who had already arrived at the office to return home and asked those who needed to come in for work-related reasons to report their status through its attendance management system. At Kakao’s headquarters in Yeongpyeong-dong, Jeju, police and military units conducted a search but found no unusual items. About 110 employees working at the site evacuated following the bomb threat, and the company plans to shift those employees to remote work.

Police officials are seen in front of Kakao’s Pangyo Agit building in Seongnam, Gyeonggi after a bomb threat was uploaded to the company's customer service center website on Dec. 15. [YONHAP]

Meanwhile, police said the person who posted the message claimed to be a male student attending a middle school in Gwangju, but investigators suspect this could be false. A report was filed with police on Dec. 8 by the middle school student, claiming identity theft. Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency are currently pursuing an investigation into the claim.

Another post using the same name had appeared on Kakao’s customer service center bulletin board at around 7:04 p.m. Wednesday, threatening to blow up Kakao’s Pangyo office. A search of the building at the time found no explosives or suspicious items.

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 CHO MUN-GYU [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]