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Police and education officials respond to multiple bomb threats in Busan

Published: 14 Sep. 2025, 16:30 Updated: 14 Sep. 2025, 17:22

A police special forces officer take part in a bomb-search drill with a trained dog on Aug. 20. [YONHAP]

BUSAN — Schools in Busan are scrambling to respond to a string of bomb threats sent by fax under the name of a Japanese lawyer. Since late last month, two high schools and eight middle schools have received threats, forcing thousands of people to evacuate.

According to the Busan Metropolitan Office of Education and the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency on Sunday, the faxes began arriving on Aug. 29. The first two were sent to high schools in Dong District and Nam District, both under the name of Tasakiro Karasawa, identified as a Japanese lawyer.

Around 150 police special forces officers and firefighters were mobilized to search the schools while some 1,100 students and staff evacuated to nearby churches and other shelters. No explosives were found. On Monday alone, eight middle schools in Busan received identical faxes, which also proved to be hoaxes after searches.

Firefighters search a high school in Busan after two schools reported receiving a bomb threat via fax on Sept. 2. [BUSAN METROPOLITAN POLICE AGENCY]

As the threats expanded from high schools to middle schools, teachers and parents began voicing concerns that elementary schools could be next.

“Elementary school students are likely to feel even greater fear and confusion during evacuations compared to older students,” an education office official said. “We have circulated response manuals to schools and are internally reviewing whether to strengthen the disaster evacuation drills that are currently conducted twice a year.”

With similar hoax incidents reported across the country, awareness is spreading that these threats are false. But schools are left uncertain about whether to evacuate students and staff. According to the Ministry of Education’s “school disaster response manual,” in the event of a terrorist threat, schools must “immediately report to police once the content is confirmed and evacuate students and staff outside the building under police instructions.”

On Monday, when the eight faxes arrived, six schools evacuated, one dismissed students early, and another continued classes while police searched the building.

Firefighters search a high school in Busan after two schools reported receiving a bomb threat via fax on Sept. 2. [BUSAN METROPOLITAN POLICE AGENCY]

“Each school checked the fax and reported it to its local police station," said a Busan education official. "Evacuations and other measures were taken based on police guidance.”

But some experts argue that relying solely on police guidance is problematic.

“At the time of a report, police also cannot easily determine whether such a threat is genuine,” said Kong Ha-sung, a professor of fire and disaster prevention at Woosuk University. “Given the large number of minors in schools, it would be more appropriate to evacuate immediately under the principal’s judgment and then report to verify the facts.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM MIN-JU [[email protected]]