{
  "id": 19739260,
  "title": "Seoul files criminal complaints against 5 serial 119 prank callers",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/13/seoul-files-criminal-complaints-against-5-serial-119-prank-callers",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-11-13T01:47:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Korea Times",
    "slug": "the-korea-times",
    "url": "https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/law-crime/20261113/seoul-files-criminal-complaints-against-5-serial-119-prank-callers"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Seoul has filed criminal complaints against five individuals who have repeatedly abused the city's emergency 119 hotline. These prank callers inundated the 119 emergency dispatch center with an astounding 8,710 non-emergency calls and text messages between September 2025 and August 2026. Their actions became particularly disruptive during the summer months, with the five culprits accounting for 4,034 separate contacts, averaging over 40 disruptions per day. One individual made a staggering 2,661 phone calls, while another sent 2,886 text messages. The nature of these contacts ranged from confusing silence to outright disruptive behavior. Dispatchers faced challenges handling silent calls where no one spoke, and incoherent messages. The Seoul Metropolitan Government deemed these actions a serious violation, leading to the filing of criminal complaints against the offenders.",
  "summary": "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…",
  "key_points": [
    "Seoul files criminal complaints against five serial 119 prank callers.",
    "Five individuals made 8,710 non-emergency calls and text messages in 15 months.",
    "Culprits accounted for 4,034 contacts, averaging over 40 disruptions daily."
  ],
  "editors_take": "The criminal prosecution of these serial prank callers signals a crackdown on the persistent misuse of emergency resources that threatens to overwhelm dispatchers and delay critical responses.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}