Seoul files criminal complaints against 5 serial 119 prank callers
For the emergency dispatchers staffing Seoul’s 119 hotline — Korea’s equivalent of 911 — every second counts. Yet over the past year, a handful of individuals treated the city’s critical lifeline for fires, accidents, and medical emergencies as a personal bulletin board, a late-night cab service, and a sounding board for drunken rants. The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Friday that it had…
Seoul authorities have filed criminal complaints against five individuals accused of repeatedly engaging in prank calls to the city's emergency 119 hotline. The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced the legal action on Friday, alleging that these habitual callers inundated the emergency dispatch center with a staggering 8,710 non-emergency calls and text messages from September 2025 to August 2026.
The surge in disruptive activity was most pronounced during the summer months, with the five individuals collectively making 4,034 separate contacts — averaging over 40 disruptions per day during the June to August period.
One of the most egregious offenders placed a total of 2,661 phone calls, while another individual sent 2,886 text messages. The nature of these contacts ranged from puzzling silence on the line to blatantly disruptive behavior. Dispatchers at the Seoul Emergency Operations Center received calls where no one spoke and incoherent messages, causing significant disruptions to the emergency response system.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government emphasized the severity of the situation, stating that the actions of these five individuals not only wasted critical resources but also jeopardized the timely response to genuine emergencies in the city.
Written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
This story
This is one outlet's version. Read the fullest account.
- Seoul files criminal complaints against 5 serial 119 prank callers koreatimes.co.kr
