By Kim Rahn
A man was detained Wednesday after taking hostage an aide to Moon Jae-in inside the main opposition leader’s offices in Busan.
Police said that the man, surnamed Jeong, 55, arrived at the offices at approximately 8:50 a.m. carrying a blunt object and 4 liters of paint thinner.
When one of Moon’s aides, surnamed Choi, arrived outside the building minutes later, Jeong reportedly hit him on the head with the object and broke into the building. Jeong is said to have then bound Choi with duct tape, poured the paint thinner on the floor and broken the windows. Citizens outside the building reported the chain of events to police.
Before the police arrived, Jeong demanded that they bring journalists. He also hung up a placard that read: “Arrest Moon who is a grave robber of gold bars.”
Jeong claimed that his brother found an underground torpedo factory filled with gold bars dating to the Japanese occupation, and that the former Roh Moo-hyun administration concealed its existence and thus Moon, a key aide to Roh, should be held responsible.
Jeong voluntarily ended the situation at 10:16 a.m. when he surrendered himself to police.
“We are questioning him over why he did so,” an officer at Sasang Police Station said, adding that they suspect Jeong has mental health problems. “We suspect he chose Moon’s office to stage a commotion because it would draw public attention to his claim.”