DISPUTE OVER GRAFFITI ON SUBWAY CARS

[Anchor Lead]

Subway depots in six cities in Korea have been vandalized by a group of graffiti artists. While some countries recognize graffiti as a form of street art, graffiti drawn by this group constitutes vandalism of public properties and illegal trespassing of subway train yards, which are classified as security facilities.

[Pkg]

At a subway train depot late at night, a man is seen crossing the tracks. He approaches one of the trains and starts spraying it with paint. After about ten minutes of drawing the outline and coloring, "word" is painted on the train. He then takes pictures of his work along with his fellows and disappears. This happened at multiple locations at approximately the same time. Subway depots in six cities -- Seoul, Incheon, Daegu, Busan, Daejeon and Gwangju -- were vandalized using graffiti between September 12 and 24. These acts were allegedly committed by the same perpetrators. The group trespassed train yards secretly via fences and barbed wire surrounding them. Although classified as security facilities, these subway depots easily fell victim to vandalism. The group had thoroughly prepared to break and enter the train yard at night when the power was off, to avoid risking their lives due to high-voltage currents on train tracks.

[Soundbite] (Incheon Transit Corp. Official (VOICE MODIFIED)) : "Perpetrators cut the fence to enter the train yard. They apparently surveyed the area several times, because they entered from the stream, not from the passageway."

Eight train cars were vandalized in total. The short English words were drawn in bold font, and the trains' exteriors eventually had to be repaired. Police identified two foreign nationals as suspects and issued arrest warrants for them on charges of facility trespassing and property damage. However, they had already left the country by then, prompting police to request Interpol to issue a red notice on them. There were subway cars vandalized by graffiti in India recently, and the drawings are very similar to the ones at the subway depots in Korea. The perpetrators are believed to be members of a global network of graffiti artists called "Rail Goons." They are notorious for drawing graffiti in hard-to-access places and taking pride in that.

[Soundbite] Leodav(Graffiti artist) : "They think that by drawing graffiti in hard-to-access places they can become more famous."

Korea has been largely regarded as an untrodden path among graffiti artists worldwide, making it an attractive location for them.