Chinese National Released After Assaulting Falun Gong Practitioner in South Korea

A Chinese man (center) destroys the Falun Gong information stands, while his accomplice (right) films the whole process of assault at Sunrise Peak in South Korea’s southern Jeju Island on the afternoon of Dec. 17, 2023. Courtesy of Kim Jung Gon

A young Chinese man attacked Falun Gong practitioners and vandalized their information posters at a famous South Korean tourist attraction on Dec. 17.

In a video clip supplied to The Epoch Times by a Falun Gong practitioner, a Chinese man stomped on all the information stands until the banners fell off, shoved the Falun Gong practitioner who tried to stop him multiple times, and shouted at the Falun Gong practitioner. Another young man, apparently an accomplice of the Chinese tourist, filmed the whole process using his mobile phone.

The violence happened at Sunrise Peak (Seongsan Ilchulbong) on South Korea’s southern Jeju Island.

This is the second attack by Chinese tourists targeting Korean Falun Gong practitioners at Sunrise Peak within a month, according to South Korean Falun Gong practitioners.

‘Brazen and Intentional’

The Sunrise Peak, an archetypal tuff cone landmark formed by hydrovolcanic eruptions, has been designated as a Natural World Heritage Site for its unique geological structures by UNESCO. It is a popular scenic spot in South Korea and welcomes numerous tourists from around the world.

On the afternoon of Dec. 17, two young Chinese men who looked like tourists entered the scenic attraction at about 3:30 p.m.

The man vandalizing the posters was subsequently identified to be a Chinese citizen surnamed Wang.

Jung Yong, one of the Falun Gong practitioners present at the scene, believes that the acts of two Chinese men were intentional.

“The two of them had different tasks—one of them was there to tear down the posters, and the other was there filming and taking photos,” Mr. Jung said.

Mr. Jung tried to block Mr. Wang from damaging the information stands but in vain. Mr. Wang constantly shoved him and yelled at him.

Mr. Jung told Mr. Wang that vandalizing other people’s property is a crime in South Korea. But Mr. Wang went over to him and lifted his hat, asking his accomplice to take a good shot of Mr. Jung.

Mr. Jung again told Mr. Wang that he is not in China but on Korean soil.

“Call the police! Go ahead and call the police! If you have the guts, just call the police!” Mr. Wang is heard shouting repeatedly in the video supplied by Mr. Kim Jung Gon, another Falun Gong practitioner who was at the scene. Mr. Kim was also filming the incident with his mobile phone.

Unlike previous attackers, these two young men appeared unafraid of the South Korean police, and the young man shooting the video of the assault asked the police at the local police station for their Wifi access, according to Mr. Jung.

Mr. Jung believes that the man wanted to send his video to the Chinese authorities in South Korea as proof that they had attacked Falun Gong practitioners and damaged their property.

“This is a brazen and intentional attack, and they didn’t care at all that they were arrested. They seemed to take it [their detention by the police] as a friendly visit,” Mr. Jung said.

The young Chinese man who made the video recording was immediately released, and Mr. Wang was released following 36 hours of detention and charged with three criminal offenses of property damage, assault, and violation of assembly and procession.

A final court decision is expected by the end of the month, according to the victim.

Assault/Battery is a major crime in South Korea, and the penalty for a simple assault offense can be a fine or imprisonment for a few months. For more serious assault offenses, the penalty can be imprisonment ranging from a few years to more than 10 years.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Jeju District Prosecutor’s Office on Dec. 27. The public prosecutor in charge of the case declined to comment.

Mr. Jung is worried that similar incidents will happen again. “If the penalty is too light, similar incidents will happen for the third or fourth time, and we will face an even more difficult situation,” he told The Epoch Times.

This is the second assault on Falun Gong practitioners at Sunrise Peak since Nov. 18. The perpetrator of the Nov. 18 attack was released with a fine of 500,000 SKW ($386).

A South Korean legal source, requesting anonymity, said that during the process of handling this incident, the proxy lawyer hired by the Chinese man told him these Chinese individuals had received training to undermine the enforcement capabilities of South Korean law. They were told that “if taken to the police station, as long as they overturn tables or shout, South Korean police would be unable to handle the situation,” the source told The Epoch Times.

Call for South Korean Government to Take Action

Over a dozen attacks targeting Korean Falun Gong practitioners and their information posters, by allegedly Chinese citizens visiting South Korea, occurred in the past couple of months in various cities in South Korea, including Seoul, the capital of the country.

Oh Se-yeol, secretary-general of the South Korean Falun Dafa Association, is concerned about the spate of violence against Falun Gong practitioners by Chinese tourists in South Korea, which he believes may be related to the activities of the Chinese Embassy in South Korea and the CCP’s secret police.

“If there are only light penalties, Chinese violations of Korean sovereignty will be further aggravated,” said Mr. Oh.

“When there are cases in which the freedom rights of Korean citizens are repeatedly violated by foreigners if our (South Korean) government does not deal with these properly, the South Korean citizens will have nowhere to seek redress, and the issue of infiltration by the Chinese Communist Party into South Korea will worsen. The government should summon the Chinese ambassador to South Korea and strongly protest and demand China to take measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again.”

According to Safeguard Defenders, a human rights nongovernmental organization based in Spain, the CCP has set up overseas police stations in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and has hired “representatives of overseas Chinese and overseas students” in countries such as South Korea, the United States, and Australia “as overseas liaison officers to cooperate with domestic officers both internally and externally.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the Foreign Ministry of South Korea, which replied that after having “checked with relevant divisions, there is no comment that we can provide.”

CCP’s Persecution of Falun Gong Extends Overseas

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual belief that is based on principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance and has five gentle, slow-moving exercises. It was spread to the public in China in 1992, and the number of people practicing Falun Gong was estimated to be 70 million to 100 million in China by July 1999 due to the significant physical benefits and moral improvements of the society.

Falun Gong practitioners gather to support the withdrawal of 390 million people from the Chinese Communist Party and its associate groups, in Brooklyn, New York, on Feb. 27, 2022. Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute the belief and its followers in July 1999, afraid of the popularity of Falun Gong in the country. The CCP has been slandering the spiritual belief in China and overseas, using all its state apparatuses, while suppressing Falun Gong adherents in China. The abhorrent atrocities that the CCP committed against Falun Gong, including forced live organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners, have been likened to “Nazi-era genocide.”

Outside China, the CCP has been also using various means to silence Chinese dissidents and religious believers, including establishing long-arm police stations and employing actors on foreign soil.

Zheng Buqiu of Flushing, New York, was arrested on Feb. 15, 2023, for repeatedly damaging information stands of Falun Gong practitioners in the Flushing neighborhood. The police charged Mr. Zheng with a hate crime and criminal mischief in the fourth degree, an officer told The Epoch Times. Both crimes are punishable by up to one year in jail.

Zhao Kang, a Chinese national who attacked a Falun Gong practitioner in Australia’s capital city of Canberra last year, was arrested by police after trying to leave the country in December 2022. He pleaded guilty to charges of common assault, property damage, and defacing property. Mr. Zhao has apologized to his victim and was fined $3,000 AUD ($2,045) by the ACT Magistrates Court.

The South Korean Epoch Times Office, Eva Fu, and Daniel Teng contributed to this report.