Police arrested a 24-year-old Korean-American woman, identified by her family name of Sin, after she poured paint thinner on the grass in front of the volunteer tent near Sungnyemun and lit it on fire with a lighter.
The fire was put out immediately. Police say Sin had been loitering around the gate all day claiming she was the actual Sungnyemun arsonist.
During the investigation, Sin said she lit the fire because there are a lot of problems in Korean society, citing specifically the recent repatriation of 20 suspected North Korean defectors to the North.
Police added that Sin returned to Korea some five months ago after graduating from university, and now lives with her parents in Samseong-dong. They also said she might have psychological issues.
11 Comments
Now we have a scapegoat!
If only Cho Seung-hui had moved back …
Heh…she might have psychological issues…ya think?
Has Azia Kim finished her studies at Stanford?
Might I suggest the gov’t start requiring psych evals of returnees?
So wait a sec… What makes her Korean-American? She just came back from school five months ago, and lives with her parents in Korea. Sounds like a non-hyphenated member of the minjok to me.
Agreed, Zonath. I didn’t see any mention anywhere that she was a US citizen or landed immigrant.
She is a Korean-American because she did something bad. If she had (for example) prevented the fire, she would have been full blown Korean.
Agreed with 6 above. So, where’s the ‘KoAm’ tag coming from?
I think she’s referred to as 재미동포 in one of the articles linked above.
K-A or not, who cares?
I was sharing with family and friends that if you’re gonna burn down national treasures, at least do it for the right reasons, such as protesting social injustice, not for a petty personal grievance.
What to us may seem like a petty personal grievance, was to the arsonist a social injustice. Don’t underestimate the “center of the world” attitude common to many older Korean males.
And beside, didn’t you read that he said one of his reasons for burning down Nat’l. Treasure Numero Uno was the “unfair prejudice against the uneducated in Korean society”? I shit you not, that’s what he claimed.
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