The suspect behind the new scribbling on an outer wall of Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul turned himself in Monday, a day after damaging the wall with red spray paint in a suspected copycat crime following a similar scribbling a day earlier.
The man in his 20s voluntarily surrendered to the Seoul Jongno Police Station at 11:45 a.m. and police officials are questioning him about the crime, including whether there was an accomplice.
Police began an investigation after receiving a report Sunday night about the new scribbling, 3 meters in length and 1.8 meters in height, in which the names of a singer and an album were sprayed in red, officials said.
It was found on the left wall of the western gate to the main palace during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), where restoration work is under way by the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) on the damaged parts from Saturday's vandalism.
The new scribbling came a day after an unidentified person wrote a phrase spanning 44 meters and promoting "free movie" with red and blue spray paint on both sides of the western gate to the palace and palace walls near the National Palace Museum of Korea.
Also sprayed were the names of illegal video-sharing and streaming platforms, with similar graffiti found on the walls of the nearby Seoul Metropolitan Agency.
The vandals are known to have carefully dodged the many surveillance cameras nearby, making it harder to detect them, according to the officials.
The CHA said the restoration will now take longer than a week.
A team of around 20 experts from the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and the National Palace Museum of Korea has been working to restore the damage since Saturday, using specialized equipment and chemicals, including steam cleaner and laser technology.
"However, the restoration process, initially estimated to take at least a week, will now need to be extended due to the additional damage," the CHA said in a press release.
The CHA plans to bolster security by installing 20 additional cameras outside the walls of the palace.
Currently, there are 415 cameras positioned at 200 locations within the palace and 14 at nine locations outside, according to the authority.
Source: Yonhap News Agency
Hanoi: Vice Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Tran Quang Phuong hosted a reception in Hanoi on December 28 for a delegation of Thailand's Udon Thani Rajabhat University led by its President Assoc. Prof. Dr. Khanisara Thansunthornsakun. Phuong commended the university's establishment of a centre of Vietnamese studies in November on the occasion of the university's 100th anniversary and the 10th anniversary of the Vietnam-Thailand strategic partnership, calling it a meaningful event in politics and culture. The legislator expressed his hope that the centre will not only perform its education-training tasks, but also contribute to deepening the cultural relations between the two countries. For her part, Thansunthornsakun briefed the hosts on cooperation between the university and educational institutions in Da Nang city, and Quang Tri, Thai Nguyen and Dien Bien provinces, adding that 20 Vietnamese students are studying at the university, and 80 Thai students are studying the Vietnamese language. T o date, the school has trained nearly 300 students who have Vietnamese language proficiency, contributing to promoting the friendship between the two countries, she said. On this occasion, the NA Vice Chairman presented the Thai university with a set of books by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, and others, with the hope that its students will have an insight into the land, people, culture, reform and development of Vietnam./. Source: Vietnam News Agency