Police to ramp up graffiti crackdown

Police said Thursday they would step up punishment to curb the growing number of graffiti paintings found across the country.

Spray painting graffiti on public or private property without permission will be punishable with charges of criminal trespassing and damaging property, the National Police Agency said.

Those charged with property damage can be punished with a penalty of up to 7 million won ($6,300) and three years in prison, while those charged with trespassing face a penalty of up to 5 million won and a three-year jail term, according to the police.

Foreigners are no exception to the charges, police said.

“If graffiti painters are found to be foreigners, the police will partner with international law enforcement agencies to hold them accountable,” they said.

The ramped-up crackdown came as part of the government’s nationwide campaign against graffiti that has increasingly daubed the walls of buildings and public transport across the nation.

Most recently, a 25-year-old U.S. citizen was booked without detention earlier Wednesday evening after scrawling graffiti on the wall of a building in Itaewon, central Seoul, the Yongsan Police Station said.

The Korean-American photographer, who entered Korea to find his biological parents, stated that the graffiti was intended to “leave a trace” in Korea.

Last month, another foreigner, a 31-year-old Korean-German only identified by her surname Kim, was caught red-handed printing a heart-shaped image and Roman alphabet letters on the wall of a building in downtown Seoul calling for world peace.

Three foreigners respectively from Romania, Spain and Latvia were also apprehended in the same month, accused of painting graffiti on the exterior walls of subways running through Seoul, Incheon and Ansan from 2013 to April.

Police also nabbed a group of Korean men after they daubed some 70 walls of private residences and parking lot gates in southern Seoul with graffiti.

The authorities vowed to step up patrols in factory sites and train and bus depots to better deter graffiti.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)