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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Man arrested for destroying S.Korea's top treasure |
| 2008-02-12 |
| SEOUL (Rooters) - South Korean police said on Tuesday they arrested a pensioner who confessed to burning down a 600-year-old gate designated as the country's number one national treasure because he was angry about a compensation payment. The stone and wood structure Namdaemun, or "Great South Gate," was reduced to a charred hulk on Monday, with newspaper editorials lamenting the destruction of an iconic symbol of national pride. Laborer Heo Eun stood at Namdaemun and summing up the sense of loss and shock shared by many South Koreans said: "It feels like the heart of the nation was destroyed overnight". The 69-year-old suspect is a convicted arsonist identified only by his family name Chae, said Namdaemun police station chief Kim Young-soo. Chae was taken into custody late on Monday and told police he had planned the fire for several months. "(He said) he committed the crime out of anger because he felt the government did not take enough care with the appeal he filed after being insufficiently compensated for redevelopment in his residential area," Kim told a news conference. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #4 Wid NOKORS problems, ventures in NATIONAL REUNIFICATION beginning, and no 9-11's yet in SK, SOKOR Radicalists have to get Seoul to spend scarce SK $$$ like Dubya on something, anything??? I SUSPECT, HOWEVER, WID RADICAL ISLAM IN THE ME UPPING THE ANTE OF VIOLENCE AGZ THE US-LED WESTERN COALITION, FROM REGIONAL TO GLOBAL, SHOULDN'T BE TOO LONG FOR A NEW NOKOR CRISIS AGZ US-SK-JAPAN [CHINA?] TO OCCUR. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-02-12 18:42 |
| #3 Part is stone and roof tiles are ceramic. Major rennovation in 1960s probably replaced all the wood. http://iain.cx/photos/images/namdaemun.jpg |
| Posted by: Darrell 2008-02-12 15:43 |
| #2 The gate can't be as old as they claim. I seen photos of Seoul after the war. Nothing left. Flattened and burned. A wood gate wouldn't have made it. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-02-12 14:13 |
| #1 the government did not take enough care with the appeal he filed after being insufficiently compensated for redevelopment in his residential area So, the government kicked him out of his house as a favor to fatcat developers, gave him pennies on the dollar in compensation, and then told him to get lost. I'd set fire to something, too. |
| Posted by: gromky 2008-02-12 11:09 |