Namdaemun Gate Destroyed by Arson

[THUNDERDUCK]

Restoring the Sungnyemun, the 610-year-old national treasure which was destroyed by an overnight fire, is expected to take up to three years and cost about 20 billion won, an official at the Cultural Heritage Administration estimated.

The landmark gate, standing in the heart of Seoul, was reduced to ugly twisted beams and ashes. The gate, better known as Namdaemun, was designated as National Treasure No. 1 in 1962.

Police have yet to determine the cause, but suspect an arson attack because of witnesses' statements and two cigarette lighters found inside the structure. No one was injured in the blaze.

"Though we have yet to discover the exact scale of the devastation, the restoration work will take two to three years," said Kim Sang-gu, a senior official at the CHA. "In 2006, we drew a real-size blueprint of the Sungnyemun as part of our efforts to establish anti-fire systems for major wooden cultural relics, so we can technically restore the archetype of the gate."

President-elect Lee Myung-bak visited the scene of the inferno yesterday, and expressed deep sadness over the collapse of the national treasure.

"(Namdaemun) was a symbolic cultural heritage of our nation; its devastation aches the hearts of the citizens," said the grim-faced Lee.

The fire broke out at around 8:50 p.m. on Sunday somewhere between the first and second levels of the landmark gate. At about 2 a.m. yesterday, the two-tiered wooden structure collapsed.

Police and firefighters are criticized for having failed to promptly respond; they apparently feared that the ancient gate could be damaged by anti-fire efforts.

According to a taxi driver, an eyewitness, the gate was set ablaze about two minutes after a man presumably in his 50s climbed up the stairs to the wooden part of it.

The government held an emergency meeting yesterday, presided over by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.

During the meeting, it was decided to set up a task force to coordinate the efforts of all parties concerned in ascertaining the exact cause of the fire and restoring the landmark. Administration members spoke of the need to check and strengthen safety measures to protect all the national treasures.

The presidential transition committee also called on investigating authorities and relevant agencies to get to the bottom of the case and take proper measures to deal with it.

"I feel sorry to our descendents for failing to protect the gate. The incoming government needs to check related policies and systems regarding the management of such cultural gems," said Lee Kyung-sook, the committee chairwoman.

Police yesterday launched a full-scale investigation into the fire. However, they have yet to determine the exact cause of the fire, and are leaving open all possibilities.

"We questioned three witnesses, but some parts of their accounts clashed with one another. We also analyzed images from four closed-circuit televisions installed around the gate, but failed to secure the scenes of a suspect moving up the Sungnyemun," said Kim Young-su, head of the Namdaemun Police Station which is handling the case.

He added, "The exact spot and cause of the fire will be verified after the results of the forensic investigation come out."

Police are also looking into whether there was any negligence by those in charge of maintaining the gate. They questioned security guards and supervising personnel.

Experts say that the fire was likely caused by an arsonist, as the flames were first seen from the second floor of the wooden structure where there were no electrical illumination devices. Also, some firefighters found two cigarette lighters at the scene.

By law, anyone who sets fire to a nationally designated cultural relic could face a jail sentence exceeding three years.

Lawmakers criticized authorities for failing to timely and systematically react to the incident to salvage the landmark gate.

"(Authorities) were quite at a loss while I was watching the gate engulfed in flames for five hours. I was wondering whether any national system, in general, functions properly," said Sohn Hak-kyu, the new chief of the United New Democratic Party.

"Since this was presumably an arson fire and people seem to blame the fire department's misjudgment in putting out the fire, we need to thoroughly verify the cause and draw up measures to prevent the repeat of such incident," said Kang Jae-sup, chief of the Grand National Party.

A palpable sense of frustration prevailed among citizens in Seoul regarding the devastated landmark.

"Opening Namdaemun to the general public, the authorities had only six fire extinguishers, which shows how neglectful they were in managing our precious relics. At around 11 p.m. on Sunday, the overall shape of the gate remained pretty intact, but their late response to the fire and the failure to coordinate the efforts of all parties engaged in extinguishing the fire reduced the gate to rubble," said Kim Jae-min, an office worker in Seoul.

"Watching the scene of our best landmark on fire, I felt like one of my close friends was burning alive. Rather than passing the buck, we need to check anti-fire plans once again to prevent another precious treasure from disappearing again," said Shim Gyu-in, a college student in Seoul.



Here is the before picture I took

[THUNDERDUCK]

SEOUL, South Korea - Police arrested a 69-year-old man suspected of setting a fire that destroyed the country’s top cultural treasure, the 610-year-old Namdaemun gate in Seoul, authorities said Tuesday.

The man, identified only by his family name Chae, was arrested Monday night on Ganghwa Island, west of Seoul, Korean national news organizations said.

“The suspect has admitted he carried out an arson,” police official Lee Man-kook said Tuesday, without giving further details.

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.

Police have secured a letter from the suspect, in which he complained about the compensation of his lands in Gyeonggi province near Seoul and he set the fire to draw social interest, Yonhap news agency said.

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.

$21 million to restore
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.

Yonhap reported earlier that 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. It added that police found a backpack and an aluminum ladder at Chae’s house that witnesses claimed the man was carrying at the scene. A bottle of thinner was also found in his house, it said.

Charged in 2006 fire
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.

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.

[ctz]

I wonder if he drew enough social interest for his cause.

[Shumatsu Samurai]

What a sad story. Such useless destruction... 

I wonder what his reason was....

[THUNDERDUCK]

A septuagenarian recidivist is being held for setting fire to the Sungnyemun, better known as Namdaemun or South Gate, apparently due to a grievance over a land compensation case. The team in charge of investigating the conflagration that consumed the iconic 600-year-old structure on Sunday night said Tuesday the suspect, identified as Chae, had a history of setting fire to historic structures.
Investigators said Chae, who was given a suspended sentence for setting fire to the Munjeongjeon Hall in Changgyeong Palace and causing about W4 million (US$1=W945) worth of damage in April 2006, has confessed to Sunday night’s arson.

Police said the suspect's initial target was Jongmyo, a Confucian shrine dedicated to memorial services for the deceased kings and queens of the Chosun Dynasty. But he gave up the plan due to its excellent guard and surveillance system. Instead he chose Namdaemun, which offered the easiest access. Police said Chae planned to set fire to public transport such as trains but gave up for fear of heavy casualties.

According to police, the suspect climbed up the western sloping wall of the ancient city gate at around 8:45 p.m. on Sunday and broke into the second floor of the gate using an aluminum ladder he had brought. He opened one of three 1.5-liter plastic bottles of paint thinner he had with him, poured it on the floor and set it ablaze with a disposable lighter.

Fire authorities and police presume that the blaze spread from the floor to the pillars and eventually to the entire ceiling area on the second, wooden floor of the structure. Only the stone ground floor survived the conflagration.

Chae told police he committed the arson to attract public attention to his outrage at receiving insufficient compensation in the process of the government's redevelopment of land in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province between 1997 and 1998.

Police said Chae’s appearance matched witness accounts of a 60-something male and he was a known arsonist, so investigators identified him as the likeliest suspect. He was arrested on Monday afternoon on Ganghwa Island, where his ex-wife lives.

From the house in Ganghwa where the suspect stayed, police confiscated a gray jacket, a pair of black trousers, sneakers, and a pair of leather gloves, which he wore during the attack as well as six liters of paint thinner.

Chae was an ordinary man who ran a fortune-telling house and raised cabbage and radish in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, until the land compensation dispute in 2005. But in the wake of the land compensation dispute and court proceedings over the 2006 attack, his resentment escalated into animosity against the whole of society, including construction firms, judges, police officers, lawyers and the government, police said.

In a letter written before the latest attack, Chae said, "I have filed several petitions concerning wrongdoings against me, but the government has never listened to my grievances. He called for “judges who always take sides with conglomerates” to be “got rid of," and asserted he was falsely charged with the Changgyeong Palace arson because he happened to be near the site of fire. He said lawyers “told me several times to make false confessions." "The government is killing the underprivileged," he added. "I feel aggrieved and victimized."

Lee Yoon-ho, a professor at the Police Administration Department of Dongguk University, said, "When he found his petitions fall on deaf ears, Chae turned his sense of injury into resentment, animosity and vengeful thoughts against society. He said he wanted to attract public attention by targeting Namdaemun. This means that he attempted to maximize the effects of his criminal activity, in full knowledge of the value of the cultural asset."

In an arson attack of the Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province in May 2006, the arsonist also felt underprivileged and alienated and sought revenge on society. By contrast, an arson attack on a subway train in Daegu in February 2003 was carried out by a mentally deranged man for no particular reason.

Experts are concerned that the latest crime might encourage copycats. Prof. Lee said, "Arson can be easily used by anybody as a weapon to express anger, given that it's easy to commit anytime and anywhere, requires no special technology or equipment, and it's easy to destroy evidence. Arson should be treated more harshly than violent crime given how common recidivism and copycat crimes are."

Jeon Hong-jin, a professor of psychiatry at the Samsung Medical Center, said, "There has been a growing tendency to imitate arson since the outbreak of these big arson cases. We shouldn’t sensationalize arson but highlight the importance of the burned-down cultural asset instead. Society as a whole needs to pay more attention to preservation of cultural assets."


The pic from Sunday Night.  I asked my students why nobody suspected anything and he told me that according to news reports people thought he was a maintenance man.

[THUNDERDUCK]

I went to see the remains of Namdaemun today.



They have the site covered to repair it.  Also, they have many messages on the fence.