hankyoreh

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) requested an arrest warrant on May 31 for a 24-year-old who burned a piece of paper showing an image of the South Korean flag while facing off with police who had erected a vehicle barricade at a memorial demonstration for the first anniversary of the Sewol ferry sinking.

The individual, identified by the surname Kim, is being charged with flag desecration.

Kim is accused of setting fire to the paper showing the South Korean flag in front of the barricade of police buses after large sections of major roads around Gwanghwamun Square in downtown Seoul were closed off during the Sewol memorial demonstration on April 18. After images of the scene appeared in the press and politicians began calling for harsh punishment, police spent 40 days tracking Kim’s activities before finally arresting him on May 29 at a park in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province.

During questioning by police, Kim said he “did not have the aim of desecrating the flag,” adding that he set fire to it “spontaneously out of rage at the police’s unjust use of authority.”

Kim’s attorney, Jeong Min-yeong, said Kim “only set fire to the flag as an expression of protest at the police’s excessive suppression tactics.”

“There was no other aim besides that,” Jeong said.

In requesting an arrest warrant, police also charged Kim with general traffic obstruction, failure to obey an order to disperse, and damage to public property (a police bus).

“The purpose of his flag burning is still under investigation,” said Kim Geun-man, chief of the SMPA’s second investigation section.

“It has not been confirmed whether Mr. Kim is affiliated with any specific groups,” Kim added.

Article 105 of the criminal code requires proof of “the purpose of insulting the Republic of Korea” to charge an individual with flag desecration.

“We should take a separate view when it comes to criticizing the government’s exercise of public authority, as opposed to insulting the state,” said Park Ju-min, an attorney with the group MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society.

By Heo Seung and Kim Kyu-nam, staff reporters

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]