Manhunt under way for suspect who threatened to assassinate South Korea President Yoon
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The suspect uploaded a post to a message board with a picture of a pistol, along with a threat to kill South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.
PHOTO: REUTERS
SEOUL - South Korean police said on Monday they were tracking a suspect who posted a terror threat online towards President Yoon Suk-yeol.
According to the police, an emergency report was filed on Sunday night that a terror threat had been posted to a message board for the “moderately conservative” online community.
The suspect uploaded the post at 10.22pm local time on Sunday, along with a photo of a pistol.
The registration number of the pistol was not visible.
“I bought the pistol with cryptocurrency and finally received it. The President has ruined the country and I will save the country by killing the President,” the suspect, identified as male, wrote.
The post was deleted hours later.
The police said the case was deemed “serious” and transferred it to the cybercrime investigation unit of the Korean national police, who are attempting to track down the poster’s IP address and identify the suspect as at press time.
South Korea has a history of its leaders facing assassinations.
The country’s third president, Mr Park Chung-hee, was fatally shot in 1979 during dinner at a safehouse within the presidential residence compound.
More recently, in neighbouring Japan in 2022, former prime minister Shinzo Abe was also killed by a shooting at close range while he was speaking in public during a political rally. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
