Lotte Hotel in hot seat for poor security

By Lee Hyo-sik

Lotte Hotel is drawing criticism for its poor security, following a break-in last week into one of its rooms where Indonesian envoys were staying.

The hotel was found to have neither deployed security guards to the floor where the 50-member delegation from the Southeast Asian country was staying, nor taken additional security measures, leaving their personal property vulnerable to theft.

Last Wednesday, the delegation reported to police that three intruders — two men and one woman — were caught using a USB memory stick to copy computer files from a notebook computer owned by an Indonesian delegate, before they fled from the hotel in downtown Seoul.

The envoys, representing Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, arrived Tuesday for a three-day visit to discuss bilateral cooperation with their South Korean counterparts. The delegation met with President Lee Myung-bak Wednesday for talks on expanding economic and military cooperation before returning home the next day.

When the suspects forced their way into the hotel room and stole classified information, the security guards from Indonesia were escorting the group to a location off the premises.

The Namdaemun Police Station, which is in charge of the incident, said Lotte Hotel failed to beef up security for the Indonesian envoys, adding it did not ask for police presence either.

The hotel had initially insisted that its security guard was on duty on the 19th floor where the delegation was staying.

But the police later refuted Lotte’s claim, saying there were no security guards present at the time of the incident. “According to a surveillance camera tape we secured, no Lotte security personnel were seen manning the hallway,” a police officer said.

The 19th floor can only be reached by an elevator and three emergency stairs. One emergency stairwell is accessible from the 12th floor, the other two from the 14th floor.

On the 14th floor, there is a reception desk. But the employee there does not check the identities of individuals using the stairwell.

No one at the Lotte Hotel’s public relations office was available for comment. But other hotels in Seoul told The Korea Times that security is not on top of their priority list.

“When Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stayed with us during the G20 summit last November, the police and Cheong Wa Dae security team came and controlled security-related matters. The police, not the hotel, are responsible for the security of important international figures staying at our hotel,” a spokesman at a top-rated hotel in Seoul said.

He said the hotel does not normally take additional security measures on its own unless the police request it.