The Seoul Northern District Court sentenced a 19-year-old to six months in prison, suspended for three years, for falsely claiming in a YouTube livestream comment that he had planted a bomb at a train station.
The defendant, surnamed Yang, posted the comment while watching a livestream on KBS Documentary’s YouTube channel from his home in Seoul on Aug. 15, 2025.
The livestream centered on a long-awaited reunion involving two college students and a KBS documentary crew who had met at Andong Station in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, in 2015 and promised to return to the same place exactly 10 years later.
“I’m there right now, and I installed a bomb,” Yang wrote in the comment section.
Another viewer reported the comment to police, prompting about 50 officers to be dispatched to the station. Police evacuated people from the area and searched for an explosive, but none was found.
“Many people at Andong Station experienced inconvenience and fear, police manpower was wasted, and the KBS Documentary team was unable to continue filming,” the court said in its ruling.
The court cited Yang’s age at the time of the offense, his lack of a criminal record and his admission of guilt in handing down the suspended sentence.
The false bomb threat disrupted filming of the much-anticipated reunion, although one of the two women did arrive at the station that day and met the production crew.
She declined to be filmed but later posted a public message expressing her gratitude.
The other woman, who was living overseas at the time, was unable to attend but also shared a message recalling their 2015 encounter.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com