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Police officers stand guard near the walls of Gyeongbokgung in Jongno-gu, central Seoul on Tuesday. (Yonhap) |
South Korean police on Tuesday said they arrested two teenagers suspected to have recently vandalized the walls of Gyeongbokgung Palace in Jongno-gu, central Seoul.
According to Jongno Police Station, the 17-year-old male suspect was taken in by officers at around 7:08 p.m. near his home in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. The other suspect, a 16-year-old girl, was also apprehended at her home which was nearby.
The pair is accused of spray-painting promotional messages of an illegal video-downloading website last Friday. They said they did so because an acquaintance promised a cash reward in exchange.
The website in question, however, claimed it had nothing to do with the crime.
The two suspects are also believed to have spray-painted an identical message on the eastern wall of a Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency building, also in Jongno-gu.
They are accused of violating Article 91, Clause 1 of the Cultural Heritage Protection Act, which states that anyone causing damage to, steals, conceals, or impairs the utility of State-designated cultural heritage shall be punished by up a minimum of three years in prison.
Officials have now caught all three people responsible for the graffiti sprayed on one of the country's most significant cultural heritage sites, which sent shockwaves throughout the country. While police were investigating the vandalism that occurred Friday, another person on Sunday spray-painted the name of a local band and a song title by the band, along with a heart.
The suspect of Sunday's vandalism, a man in his 20s, turned himself in on Monday morning, saying that he did so because "he was a fan" of the band in question. He did not answer local media outlets' questions on whether he was acquainted with the other suspects.
The Cultural Heritage Administration has deployed preservation specialists to remove the graffiti and restore the affected parts. The incident has spurred authorities to add 20 additional security cameras outside the royal palace.
Gyeongbokgung was one of the main palaces of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).
