Police to seek warrants for four Chinese suspects in ‘Xi Jinping’ restaurant vandalism

All four left for China on the day of the incident, complicating efforts to bring them back

Police said Monday they plan to seek arrest warrants for four Chinese nationals suspected of vandalizing a restaurant in Seongnam named after Chinese President Xi Jinping. All four left South Korea for China on the day of the incident.

An official at the National Office of Investigation said at a regular briefing that police planned to apply for the warrants later Monday. “The suspects have left for China, so we will work closely with Chinese authorities through our international cooperation bureau,” the official said.

The four men, aged in their 20s to 40s, are suspected of breaking into the Chinese restaurant in Bundang-gu, Gyeonggi Province, around 2:40 a.m. Thursday, the first day of the Chuseok holiday.

Police say they sprayed lacquer and paint inside and sprayed a substance believed to be pesticide on food ingredients.

Police identified the suspects, but all four had already left for China.

According to investigators, the men covered their faces with masks and hats, stopped at lodgings in Seoul’s Seongdong-gu after the incident and departed from Incheon Airport. Three left that morning and the fourth that afternoon.

If arrest warrants are issued, South Korean authorities could ask Interpol to issue Red Notices for the suspects.

A Red Notice asks police worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition or similar legal action. It is not itself an international arrest warrant.

Securing the suspects’ return could be difficult. According to Yonhap News Agency, China has not complied with a South Korean extradition request since the two countries signed an extradition treaty.

A Chinese former Coupang employee suspected in the company’s major data breach also returned to China and has yet to be brought back to South Korea.

“We are conducting a cooperative investigation through multiple channels,” the NOI official said of the Coupang case. The official declined to give a firm assessment of its progress.