Police Crack Down on Abusive Netizens

For the first time, prosecutors will begin taking legal action against those who post abusive messages on the Internet.

The new measure is expected to change the nature of replies on the Internet, which up to this point has been characterized by slanderous and abusive remarks.

The Seoul Public Prosecutor’s Office said on January 22 that it will take legal action against 25 Internet users who posted replies containing abusive remarks on an Internet news site that reported that the son of Lim Soo-kyeong (38) drowned last July.

There have been cases where prosecutors have gone after those who stole internet Ids to verbally abuse others or spread unfounded rumors, but this is the first time that prosecutors have taken issue with the replies themselves, and the first time that they have decided to punish those who posted them on the Internet.

Lim created a ripple effect both at home and abroad when she visited Pyongyang to attend the Pyongyang Peace Festival in 1989. Her son, who was in the Philippines studying English, drowned to death in a swimming pool last July. The news was reported on Internet news sites.

At that time, the Internet users posted replies on the news sites. Most of the replies consisted of abusive remarks and contained foul languages. Some of them even said, “You’d better suck Kim Jong Il’s toes (North Korean leader),” “Your son deserves death, you communist.”

Lim sued 25 people who posted abusive replies on the Internet for slander and defamation of character.

The prosecution completed an investigation into the matter and summoned the accused for questioning after examining their personal information.

Prosecutors decided to indict seven or eight of them without detention on January 25 for contempt, and to summarily indict the rest of them to fine. They are also considering requesting an arrest warrant for one or two persons who spread the replies from one Internet news site to another.

Contempt charges in this case are punishable by less than one year in prison or a fine of up to two million won, according to the criminal law.

“Most of the replies contained foul language with no concrete facts,” said a prosecution official. “Accordingly, we decided that the charge should be contempt, not defamation of character.”

The official added that during the investigation, Lim said, “I thought that someone should raise the issue of the abusive replies on the Internet in order to prevent other people from falling victim to the same.”

Lim has her social activities on hold since her son’s death and is currently living in seclusion in a temple in South Gyeongsang Province.

Jin-Kyun Kil woogija@donga.com leon@donga.com