2023-12-19 21:44:00
ⓒ JoongAng Ilbo/JoongAng Ilbo Japanese version2023.12.20 06:44
A teenage boy and girl who painted graffiti on the exterior walls of Gyeongbokgung Palace with lacquer spray and ran away were arrested three days following the crime.
Seoul’s Jongno Police Station announced that they arrested Lim (17) at his residence in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province at around 7:08 pm on the 19th. Lim is suspected of graffitiing the words “Free Movies” and addresses of illegal video sharing sites such as “○○○TV” on three locations, including the exterior walls of Gyeongbokgung Palace, in the early hours of the 16th. It turned out that Mr. A (16), who was also arrested, was at the scene but did not take part in the graffiti.
According to police, it was learned that Lim committed the crime following receiving a proposal from an acquaintance who offered to pay him if he wrote graffiti on illegal video sharing sites. The two took a taxi from near their residence and got off near Gyeongbokgung Palace around 1 a.m. on the 16th. At around 1:42 a.m., Lim used red and blue spray paint to paint graffiti on a 6.25-meter section on either side of the Yeongchumun Gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace. Also, at 1:55 a.m., graffiti was left on a 38.1-meter section of the left and right outer walls of the National Palace Museum gate. Im then took the certification shot. At around 2:44 p.m., he also painted 9 meters of graffiti on the outer wall to the right of the Seoul National Police Agency parking lot entrance, which is a 6-minute walk from Yeongchumun Gate. Police are considering charging the two with violating the Act on the Protection of Cultural Properties and damaging property. The Cultural Properties Protection Act punishes anyone who damages, steals or hides nationally designated cultural properties, or otherwise impairs their utility, with a fixed-term prison sentence of three years or more.
The two men’s crimes also led to copycat crimes. Around 10 p.m. on the 17th, B, a man in his 20s, painted graffiti with red lacquer spray on the left side of Yeongjumun Gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace. Prior to this, at a place that had already been damaged by Im’s graffiti and the Cultural Heritage Administration was working on restoring it, there was a 1.8 meter tall and 3 meter wide square with the name of a Korean band and its album name written on it. It was a graffiti of great size. B turned himself in at Jongno Police Station at around 11:45 a.m. on the 18th, regarding 14 hours following the crime, as the police investigation network narrowed. When B was interrogated by the police that day, he confessed that he “drew the graffiti to get attention.” The police, who have taken all the perpetrators into custody, plan to investigate the circumstances surrounding the crime, whether there was any prior conspiracy, and the relationship between the first and second crimes.
Meanwhile, the Cultural Heritage Administration is repairing the exterior walls of Gyeongbokgung Palace by investing regarding 20 conservation experts and equipment such as steam cleaners. Recovery is expected to take at least a week. A Cultural Heritage Agency official said, “We plan to install additional security cameras in the future to strengthen our monitoring staff.” According to the Cultural Heritage Administration, there are 415 security cameras installed inside Gyeongbokgung Palace, but only 14 are on the exterior walls.
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