Police nab threat posters amid tightened security after stabbings

Police nabbed 46 people nationwide for posting online murder threats after two recent stabbing rampages killed two and injured 16. This includes one teenager arrested in Yeongwol, Gangwon, and another in Goyang, Gyeonggi over the weekend...

Police commandos and their armored vehicle guard the area near Gangnam Station in southern Seoul on Sunday. Police dispatched additional officers near subway stations and department stores over the weekend amid a flurry of online threats of more stabbings in public spaces. [YONHAP]

Police nabbed 46 people nationwide for posting online murder threats after two recent stabbing rampages killed two and injured 16.

This includes one teenager arrested in Yeongwol, Gangwon, and another in Goyang, Gyeonggi over the weekend.

The teenager in Yeongwol created an online post threatening to go on a stabbing rampage in Wonju Station over the weekend. The teen in Goyang also released a similar message to kill people randomly in a neighborhood in Deokyang District.

Upon their arrest, the teenagers said they were either trying to gain online attention or “have some fun.”

The prosecutor general told chief prosecutors in a meeting on Sunday that anyone arrested for releasing such threatening messages online must face criminal charges.

“This is a criminal act that amplifies public anxiety and prevents the authorities from providing appropriate security where it is actually necessary,” said Lee Won-seok, prosecutor general.

Following stabbing rampages in recent weeks, police deployed 12,000 officers in 247 places nationwide, including subway stations and department stores.

One of the 14 victims in a stabbing rampage in Bundang, Gyeonggi, last week died Sunday. She was a woman in her 60s taking a walk with her husband near a shopping mall in Bundang on Thursday when she was hit by a car.

A man in his 20s drove the car onto a sidewalk near the mall and rammed pedestrians before stabbing people inside the mall. A total of five people were hit by the car, and nine were stabbed.

Blackbox footage from a car parked nearby at the time showed the body of the woman in her 60s flying into the air after she was hit. Her husband was filmed rushing to her side immediately.

“I don’t know why it had to be my wife,” the husband of the woman in her 60s told Yonhap News on Friday. “I was the one closer to the road.”

The culprit, a man in his 20s surnamed Choi, was arrested on site and detained since. Police said they plan to request the prosecution to indict him for murder. They were mulling over revealing his identity to the public as of Sunday.

The knife-wielding rampage was the second one to take place in Korea within two weeks.

A 33-year-old man named Cho Sun stabbed a man in his 20s, a random stranger, to death near Sillim Station in Seoul on July 21. He attacked three more men, all in their 30s, all strangers to Cho, before he was arrested on site by the authorities.

Cho told the police that he had been thinking of killing people for a while. He was diagnosed by authorities as having psychopathic tendencies.

Threats to commit similar knifing rampages spread on social media networks over the weekend, sparking public anxiety over visiting crowded spaces or subway stations where threats had been made.

This fear was amplified when a man carrying two knives at Seoul Express Bus Terminal was arrested on Friday. He had posted an online threat message against police officers earlier that day.

Online threats included those in which the poster threatened to kill at least 20 people near Seohyun Station in Bundang or Jamsil Station in Seoul.

“I keep looking over my shoulder with chills running down my back,” said a 25-year-old who asked to be identified only as Kim. “I don’t want my name out there as you don’t know what might happen.”

A person identifying only as Lim echoed those concerns. “I keep looking around my surroundings like prey on full alert,” Lim said.

Such fears were shared online as well. One poster asked for information on where they can buy acid to use for self-defense in an attack.

Many commented on the randomness of recent stabbing rampages.

One young man, who wished not to be identified, said he too wasn't sure if he could fight off an assailant with a knife.

“This is crazy,” he said. “I consider myself somewhat built and yet I’m afraid to walk around.”

Some people said they were canceling their weekend plans to hang out in fear of a “copycat” attack.

More online posts recommended people take out their earbuds while walking on the streets to keep alert to the surroundings.

Self-defense products’ online sales have skyrocketed, especially since the Sillim Station attack two weeks ago.

Gmarket, an e-commerce platform, saw sales of self-defense products increase 243 percent between July 22, the day after the Sillim Station attack, and last Thursday, compared to the same period a year ago.

Tactical baton sales, in particular, surged more than 300 percent.

Sales of self-defense products surged on another e-commerce website, 11st, including for the tactical baton, sales of which jumped 200 percent in the last two weeks year-on-year. Pepper spray sales spiked 470 percent and covert stab vests saw sales increase 181 percent during the same period.

“I’m looking for items that I could protect myself with as I have become fearful since the knife attack [last Thursday],” said an anonymous post on Blind, a popular website for anonymous company reviews. “I can’t protect myself with an object like a stick especially if that criminal is a man that could overpower me.”

The chief of the National Police Agency, Yoon Hee-keun, announced Friday that the police will be granted special rights to search people suspected of concealing weapons in the streets and public spaces until public security is restored.

The police chief also said the police will be using force when necessary, including guns and tasers.

Police may also skip verbal warnings or firing blanks before using live ammo on a suspect in life-threatening situations.

“We’re in a serious emergency state where the safety of the people is under grave threat by heinous criminals of various kinds,” Yoon said at a press briefing Friday.

President Yoon Suk Yeol also ordered the police to respond firmly to attacks like the one at the mall in Bundang. According to the president’s office, Yoon labeled the latest attack at Bundang an “act of terrorism against innocent people.”

The Ministry of Justice also said it will push changes to the criminal code to enable judges to sentence criminals to life imprisonment without parole.

Currently, criminals sentenced to life are given a chance for parole after 20 years.

The number of people sentenced to life who were given parole in recent years has increased from one in 2015 to 16 last year.

Some 1,310 prisoners are serving life sentences, or about 0.8 percent of the total prisoner population of 34,475.

Capital punishment exists in Korea, but there hasn’t been an execution since 1997.

Nevertheless, 59 prisoners were on death row as of Sunday.

BY LEE HO-JEONG, ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]