Office building of Samsung Life Insurance in southern Seoul was evacuated on Friday following a report of a bomb threat, i.e. explosives being planted on the location. Authorities promptly dispatched a response team that evacuated the building and surveyed the site, but ultimately found no evidence of explosives, Reuters reports. The source who falsely tipped the police about a bomb is a Busan resident known as Shin, local media reports, adding that the source saw a text message received by one of their acquaintances according to which two North Koreans were looking to plant a bomb in the building. The contents of the message were written in English while the message itself was allegedly sent on Tuesday, but no other details on the matter have been disclosed by the investigators.
Following the false tip, authorities evacuated approximately 3,000 employees of Samsung Life Insurance and conducted an extensive search of the building. No people have been harmed and no property damaged during the ordeal, local police said, adding that they’re currently in the process of tracking down the source of the false report that cost Samsung a significant number of wasted man-hours. It remains to be seen whether the South Korean company will comment on the matter, but no official statements regarding the ordeal have yet been made on Samsung’s part.
Samsung Life Insurance is a Seoul-based insurance company owned by Samsung Group, the largest business conglomerate in South Korea. In addition to being the biggest firm of its kind in the Far Eastern country, Samsung Life Insurance has also been a Fortune Global 500 company for many years now. In the context of consumer electronics, Samsung Group’s subsidiary was recently making headlines for the way in which it was handling requests for damages caused by the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung Electronics’ faulty phablet that ended up being discontinued in late 2016 following two unprecedented recalls. On a related note, Samsung is currently in the process of enduring a major scandal in its home country that saw its Vice Chairman and heir apparent Jay Y. Lee arrested on charges of bribery, embezzlement, and hiding proceeds of a criminal act.