Moon assassination threat 'online flop'

Moon Jae-in from the Democratic Party of Korea gives a free hug to a supporter on his back in Seoul’s Hongdae district on Saturday. / Yonhap

By Ko Dong-hwan

An unidentified man threatened to assassinate Moon Jae-in in an online post, above, at DC Inside, May 5.

An anonymous online threat to assassinate a leading presidential candidate turned out to be a nonsensical flop.

An unidentified man, 26, turned himself in to Goseong-gun police in South Gyeongsang Province on Friday evening, confessing that hours earlier he had threatened online to assassinate Moon Jae-in the next day while he was giving free hugs to citizens in Hongdae district in western Seoul.

The unemployed college graduate told police he posted the threat as a joke to see how people would react.

But when the post went viral, he became frightened and decided to confess.

Ninety minutes earlier, he had apologized to visitors to animation/cartoon online site Ruliweb for making the threat, saying he “did it out of curiosity” and asking for“forgiveness.”

“I had no intention to provoke fans of Joosik Gallery,” the man said in the apology, referring to a section at online community site DC Inside where he posted the threat 10 minutes before.

He said he was “a fool,” “indiscreet” and would “never do such a thing.”

Moon, who leads the Democratic Party of Korea, promised on May 3 that if the turnout for early voting on May 4 and 5 was 25 percent or higher, he would give free hugs at the following day.

The figure hit 26 percent ― more than 11 million votes ― nationwide, and Moon kept his promise Saturday evening.

In the threat, the suspect said he would“pretend to give Moon a free hug before killing him.”

Along with the insidious message was a black and white photo of an ultra-right male political supporter about to stab to death a high-profile Japanese politician giving a speech in 1960.

The threat was referred to Mapo police, who oversee the district, according to online news outlet The Fact.

Police said the man appeared to have no particular affinity to any political party and was unlikely to be charged.