22 charged for prank emails, texts after S.Korea attacks

South Korean police said Friday they had charged 22 people with spreading rumours and false information online or in text messages after North Korea shelled an island in the South, a news report said.

After the North attacked the frontline island Tuesday, killing four people, some people allegedly sent out text messages claiming to be from the defence ministry and other military offices, saying reserve forces had been called up.

South Korea, which never signed a peace treaty with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean war, requires men over 19 to perform two years of military service and then keeps them in its reserve forces.

Other online and cellphone users allegedly sent fabricated claims, including that South Korea had first attacked the North, said the cyber crime division of the National Police Agency, according to the Yonhap news agency.

"We will keep tracking down those who spread false information, while preparing countermeasures on cyber terrorism," an NPA official said.