South Korean journalist beat up by Chinese security guards at summit aimed at mending ties
What’s a little bloodshed between friends?
A summit aimed at mending ties between China and South Korea following a year-long spell of frosty relations was marred somewhat yesterday after a Korean journalist was beaten bloody by security guards in Beijing.
The beating took place at a bilateral trade event on Thursday called the “Korea-China Economy and Trade Partnership” that was attended by Korean President Moon Jae-in and his press pool.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reports that journalists were blocked from following Moon to some of the booths by security guards, something that the reporters were not happy about. The situation escalated with about 15 Chinese security guards surrounding a Korean photojournalist, Lee Chung-woo, from the Seoul-based Maeil Business Newspaper, forcing him outside and roughing him up.
In video of the fracas, one security guard can be seen kicking the journalist while the man’s colleagues plead with them to stop.
According to Yonhap, Lee was taken to the hospital where he required “intensive” treatment. An anonymous South Korean official said that the guards were under the direction of Chinese police.
South Korea’s foreign ministry has expressed its concern to the Chinese government over the incident and has called for an investigation. Meanwhile, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang later told journalists “If anyone was indeed hurt, then of course we express concern,” CNN reports.
A spokesperson for South Korea’s Liberal Party, the country’s main opposition party, went even further, calling for Moon to immediately cancel his four-day visit to China which began on Wednesday.
The incident occurred only hours before Xi Jinping rolled out the red carpet to Moon who is on his first trip to China since being elected in May. The visit is aimed at solidifying normal relations between the two countries following a year-long standoff over Moon’s predecessor’s decision to install the US-backed THAAD missile defense system. A decision that wreaked havoc on South Korean businesses.
Faced with a nuclear-obsessed neighbor, Seoul saw the system as necessary to its own survival. Meanwhile, Beijing viewed it as a threat to China’s national security, vowing to take “countermeasures” as Seoul refused to reconsider.
Chinese tour groups were banned from South Korea, devastating the country’s tourism industry, which heavily relies on high-spending Chinese tourists. At the same time, South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group, which handed over land for THAAD’s construction, became the target of Chinese nationalists, hackers and state media with many of its locations in China shut down by the government amid popular boycotts.
Even South Korean golfers and Kpop idols were not safe from the THAAD backlash. By March, South Koreans hated China even more than they hated Japan.
But everything is cool now, right?
[Images via news.mk.co.kr / Yonhap]
