Korean YouTuber referred to prosecutors over false claim of 37 mutilated bodies
Korean YouTuber Korean Teacher Debo-chan, who delivers news about Korea in Japanese for a primarily Japanese audience / Captured from his YouTube channel
False claims linking Chinese nationals to mutilated bodies, organ trafficking are ‘serious act harming national interest,’ police say
A Korean YouTuber accused of spreading false claims that dozens of mutilated bodies were discovered in the country has been referred to prosecutors, police said Wednesday.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s cyber investigation department said it sent a case involving a man in his 30s, identified only by his surname Cho, to prosecutors on Feb. 13 without detention on suspicion of violating the Framework Act on Telecommunications.
Police also requested a pre-indictment forfeiture order for $2,421 in alleged criminal proceeds earned from his YouTube channel.
Cho runs a YouTube channel targeting a Japanese audience and has about 960,000 subscribers. He is accused of posting a video on Oct. 22, 2025, claiming that 37 bodies consisting only of the lower halves had been discovered in Korea and that there were more than 150 undisclosed investigations.
The video also claimed that murder and organ exchange crimes have surged in Korea after the country allowed visa-free entry for Chinese nationals, police said.
Last November, Korea’s National Police Agency designated the video as a serious act harming national interest and ordered the Seoul police to investigate the case.
In a video posted to his channel Wednesday titled “The police investigation results are out,” Cho denied spreading fake news and said he merely discussed information and comments found online.
Seoul police recently referred another man in 30s to public prosecutors on suspicion of uploading false information on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) under President Lee Jae Myung’s name.
Police said the posts falsely claimed that the government will raise taxes on overseas stock gains and introduce a 1 percent tax on foreign stock holdings.
“While freedom of expression should be guaranteed as much as possible, malicious or clearly false information will be dealt with firmly,” a police official said.
Authorities said they plan to conduct a crackdown on fabricated or manipulated online information spread through automated tools.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.