South Korea Arrests Man in Landmark Fire

SEOUL, South Korea - Police arrested a 70-year-old man suspected of setting a fire that destroyed the country's top cultural treasure, the 610-year-old Namdaemun gate in Seoul, news reports said early Tuesday.

The man, identified only by his family name Chae, was arrested Monday night on Ganghwa Island, west of Seoul, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unnamed police officer. Cable news network YTN carried a similar report.

The fire broke out Sunday night and burned down the wooden structure at the top of the Namdaemun gate, which once formed part of a wall that encircled the South Korean capital.

Hundreds of stunned South Koreans gathered near the charred structure Monday night.

"My heart is burning," Lee Il-soo, a 56-year-old man who runs a small business, said as he fought back tears. He said the fire had destroyed the pride of South Korea.

The two-tiered wooden structure was renovated in the 1960s, when it was declared South Korea's top national treasure. The government built a plaza around the gate, officially known as Sungnyemun, in 2005 and opened it to the public the following year for the first time in nearly a century.

The gate _ carrying a plaque reading "The Gate of Exalted Ceremonies" in Chinese characters _ had been off-limits to the public since Japanese colonial authorities built an electric tramway nearby in 1907. Japan ruled the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

The Cultural Heritage Administration said it would take at least three years to fully restore the gate and it would cost some $21 million. Some 360 firefighters fought to bring the blaze under control, said Lee Sang-joon, an official with the National Emergency Management Agency.

Police said Chae's physical appearance and outfit matched those of a person witnesses said climbed the stairs of the gate shortly before the fire started, Yonhap reported.

Police found a backpack and an aluminum ladder at Chae's house that witnesses claimed the man was carrying at the scene, the news agency said. A bottle of thinner was also found in his house, it said.

Yonhap said the man had been charged in 2006 with allegedly setting fire to the Changgyeong Palace in Seoul, which caused $4,230 in property damage. Yonhap quoted the police officer as saying Chae was only one of several suspects.

An official at a police station handling the case refused to confirm the report.

Lee Keun-bae, an official at the National Emergency Management Agency, said he was aware of Chae's arrest from news reports, but said his office has not been officially notified of the arrest by police.

Authorities have said arson is suspected but that it could also have been an electric leakage.

Firefighters found two disposable lighters at the spot where they believed the fire broke out, Yonhap reported earlier, citing fire official Oh Yong-kyu.

President-elect Lee Myung-bak visited the scene Monday and deplored the destruction of the landmark, the namesake of Seoul's central district.

Kim Ok-ja, a 40-year-old public servant, said she could not sleep Sunday night after hearing of the fire because her heart was broken.

"I came here immediately after finishing work because my heart aches so much," she said after offering a white flower, a traditional symbol of grieving.

a mental case

He's more likely to make a full confession with less beating and nobody will believe him if he claims he was tortured. What does a mental case know?

My only question is why did they have to go all the way outside of Seoul to find a scapegoat? Were there no crazies with a ladder, a backpack, or something flammable within the metro areas 23 million residents?

Chae's physical appearance .... matched those of a person witnesses said climbed the stairs of the gate shortly before the fire started. What more proof do we need! He looks old, Korean, and he started a fire before.

First let's get a few confessions and then we'll see which one seems most plausible and make the others confess they saw that guy doing it. Then we go home for kimchee!

I don't think so. He is not a derelict. He used to live in Koyang. His life was ordinary until he feels that he did not get paid fairly for the land which was appropriated for constructing apartment complex. He asked for $400K, and they only gave $100K. He grew angry at the authorities who did not take on his side. So he first attempted to torch a building inside Chang-gyung palace. The fire burnt down a door to the building but was put out in time.

The damage was about $4000. The court gave him suspended sentence, considering his old age and the fact that he had no prior record. However, the compensation/fine of $13,000 he was forced to pay drove him destitute. So he got angry again and went back to his protest by torching a landmark.

Obviously he was seriously misguided and angry man. The reason he got caught so fast is that police started to check those who had prior record on damaging historical landmark. He is not a beggar or homeless roaming around the place, as it turned out.

As you said, they do not have to go far from Namdaemun to find beggars or homeless. These days, Seoul Train Station works as a night shelter for homeless. If you go there early morning or late night, you may see hundreds of them dozing at the chairs of the main lobby.

I came across one of them right after 4am when I got off a train. There were a few really disturbed people, who went around yelling non-stop. One of them came to me and taunt for a few minutes for no reason.

If police behaved as you said, that would be the first place to go. There would be more than one real nutcase, and frame him as the culprit.

However, would it have worked? I don't think so. Based on the evidence on the scene, it was a premeditated act after some planning.

There are some high-profile unsolved cases in S. Korea. Multiple murders of women over several years. And double murder of kids more than 10 years ago. I wonder why police was unable to find a convenient scapegoat in those cases.

There is some work to be done about comparing possible finger prints on the lighters found at the scene with the suspect's fingerprints.

Apparently, the suspect did not bother to cover his tracks carefully. He casually walked out of the scene and took a cab and went to the place of his son, and stayed there overnight, and went home the next day. He now lives in Kanghwa.

So your charge of rounding up vagrants and beating the crap out of them until one of them confess is not true.

Reportedly he case the place in last July and December, so that he can presumably figure out how to go in and out of the place, undetected. The place has security cameras, and daytime security personnel. He was able to elude all of them, by picking the right time and the route of entry.

I think you jumped the gun on this case.

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