Kim Rahn is the managing editor of The Korea Times. Since joining the company in 2003, she has covered various beats including the presidential office, Seoul city government, the Bank of Korea and the tourism industry. In 2014, she won the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award for her coverage of the ordeals of migrant women in Korea.
Police hunt radioactive material rumormongers
By Kim Rahn
Police have launched an investigation to single out those responsible for the dissemination of false rumors that due to shifts in the wind Korea was vulnerable to the spread of radioactive materials from Japan.
They plan to charge the people who spread the rumors through cell phone text messages and Twitter.
Police said Wednesday that they are tracking the rumors to find the person who first sent out the false information.
The message said, “The wind has begun to blow toward the Korean Peninsula. Stay indoors for 24 hours and close all windows. If it rains, don’t expose yourself to it. Tell your friends about this. It is said the materials may hit Korea as early as 4 p.m.,”
The weather agency has made it clear that Korea is not susceptible to the radiation leak in Japan.
Police said the person who made up the rumor will be charged with violating the information protection law.
“The law bans people from repeatedly sending messages that can cause unnecessary fear or uneasiness,” a police officer at the National Police Agency’s Cyber Terror Response Terror said.
He added that those who forwarded or re-tweeted the messages may have legal responsibility but there has been no decision on whether to punish them.