"3-Week Extension of Social Distancing" Document Circulated on KakaoTalk Leaked by Incheon City Official

On the 18th, when indoor sports facilities in the metropolitan area resumed operations, citizens were exercising at a gym in Seoul. / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] The document regarding the extension of social distancing measures that circulated online earlier this month was leaked by a public official belonging to Incheon City Hall, and the police are investigating, SBS reported on the 21st.

The public official, who was part of the Secretariat of Incheon City, is suspected of directly photographing a document stating that the social distancing level 2.5 would be extended for three weeks to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and distributing it through social networking services (SNS) to acquaintances. The quarantine authorities had decided on a two-week extension, so the content that was leaked at the time differed from the actual decision.

The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters requested an investigation, stating that the leak caused confusion in quarantine measures. The police referred the Incheon City official to the prosecution on charges of official secret leakage. He admitted to leaking the document but reportedly argued that it was not a secret leak since it had already been posted online by other local governments.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.