A man suspected of setting fire to the historic Namdaemun or South Gate in Seoul is being taken to the Namdaemun Police Station on Tuesday morning.

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."

(englishnews@chosun.com )