The New Century Shen Yun Art Troupe from the United States recently concluded its tour in Taiwan and arrived in South Korea on February 9th. They officially started their performances in South Korea on February 14th. However, just days before Shen Yun’s performance in South Korea, both the production company and the theater received threatening emails. The police have launched an investigation into the matter.
According to officials from the Busan Police Department and the Shen Yun production company on February 13th, on the morning of the 10th, the customer service center of the production company received an email from an unidentified sender. On the same day, the Busan Dream Theatre also received a threatening email claiming that “bombs have been planted at the (Shen Yun) performance venue.”
The production company immediately reported the situation to the Busan Namgu Police Station and the Busan Police Department. After accepting the report, the police mobilized the anti-terrorism unit, as well as personnel from intelligence, serious crimes, cyber, and special operations departments, and conducted a search of the performance venue in the afternoon, but no explosives were found.
“Subsequently, from the 10th to the 13th, the police conducted checks of the site twice daily and still found no explosives,” said the production company.
The content of the email received by the production company directly mentioned South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, claiming that if Shen Yun performances were held, it would endanger Lee Jae-myung’s personal safety.
Our investigation confirmed the full content of the email received by the production company. The email’s subject was: “If Shen Yun performance proceeds, Lee Jae-myung will be in trouble.” The email stated, “If you do not care about the lives of Lee Jae-myung and all high-ranking officials in South Korea, then continue your performances.” The sender added, “It doesn’t matter, as long as you can pay the price.” It is worth noting that the email was written in traditional Chinese characters, without punctuation, using spaces instead.
Since the police refused to disclose the contents of the email received by the theater, citing an “ongoing investigation,” we could not confirm if the email was written in Chinese. However, individuals from the production company stated that the theater received a threat indicating “five bombs have been placed at the specified address (Busan performance venue)” and that the sender of the two emails was the same.
The Shen Yun New Century Art Troupe from the United States performed a total of 33 shows in seven cities in Taiwan from December 30th last year to February 8th this year, all of which were sold out. They are scheduled to perform six shows in Busan, South Korea (from the 14th to the 15th) and Daegu (from the 18th to the 20th) around the Lunar New Year.
The organizers stated that Shen Yun performances are highly anticipated events for many audiences, and they will make every effort to implement various security measures to ensure that the performances proceed as scheduled. Furthermore, the organizers stated that the sender’s actions were essentially false threats aimed at pressuring the theater to cancel the performances.
Individuals from the production company stated, “The police even deployed bomb-sniffing dogs and conducted multiple searches on-site, but found no abnormal signs. The sender’s threats of ‘placing bombs at the venue’ and ‘targeting the president’ are absurd and baseless.”
According to statistics from the Shen Yun Art Troupe’s U.S. headquarters, between 2024 and 2025, the troupe received over 130 terror threats involving explosives or shootings worldwide, but none of these incidents actually occurred.
On February 20, 2025, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. received a threatening phone call of “explosives already placed” just hours before a Shen Yun performance, prompting the temporary evacuation of the audience. After a search by the police, no dangerous items were found, and the performance continued as usual.
Moreover, there have been false explosive threats against Shen Yun performances in the United States, Europe, Taiwan, and elsewhere, all of which were ultimately proven to be fake.
Individuals from the production company stated, “Based on past cases, the threatening email received this time is highly likely to be related to the Chinese Communist Party.” They pointed out that Shen Yun performances focus on the “traditional Chinese culture before communism” with the aim of reviving China’s true traditional culture. In fact, the Shen Yun official website describes the performance as “the show that the Chinese Communist Party does not want you to see.”
Personnel from departments under the jurisdiction of the Busan Police Station stated during a phone interview with our newspaper that relevant personnel have gone to the theater to continue the investigation. We will continue to follow up on the progress of the incident.