A man in his 70s who set fire to two buildings in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul's Gangnam district, acted out of uncontrollable anger fueled by an unfounded suspicion tied to his fixation on patents, police said. Anger-driven arson of this kind occurs two to three times a day in South Korea. Because arson can cause mass casualties, calls are growing for stronger investigative capacity and measures to prevent repeat offenses.
According to police on the 22nd, the man in his 70s, who was arrested on suspicion of setting fire to two buildings in Yeoksam-dong housing patent law firms, admitted to the crime during questioning on the 20th, saying he had set the fires "to scare them." Identified only as A, he told police that the two patent firms he targeted had defrauded him, including by issuing a patent registration certificate he claimed was false. "I wanted to scare them and let the world know about this," he said. After being caught near Dongmyo Station on the 20th and transferred to Suseo Police Station, A raised his voice at reporters, saying, "The patent law firm defrauded me. I filed a patent in 2000, and they defrauded me."
Police found that A acted on an unfounded suspicion about his patents. According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office, A applied on April 17, 2019, for a design patent on strength-training equipment, which was registered on Aug. 23 of that year. The agent handling the filing at the time was a patent attorney at a firm on the third floor of the Shinmyung Building, one of the buildings damaged in the fires. A filed another design patent application for exercise equipment on Feb. 12, 2020, which was registered on Dec. 4. The agent for that design was a patent firm on the fourth floor of the Hanyang Building, the other building damaged in the fires. Both designs were also registered under A's name overseas, including in the United States and Brazil.
A had asked a patent firm to register his trademarks abroad and was told that only online certificates would be issued. Because he received no paper certificate, he came to suspect that the patent attorney had stolen his trademarks. A reportedly displayed paper certificates on the wall at his home, a sign of his fixation. In December 2022, four years ago, he visited the same offices, sprayed gasoline on employees and threatened them with a lighter and scissors. He was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for special intimidation by the Seoul Central District Court in April 2023. The rights to both designs remain registered in A's name.
Police said A prepared the crime deliberately, buying two large containers, a lighter and flammable liquid near his home in Seoul's Gangseo district on the 16th, four days before the fires. Closed-circuit television footage near his residence captured him carrying flammable liquid in both hands as he got into a taxi to travel to Yeoksam-dong.
As in the Yeoksam-dong case, arson is often used as a way to vent anger or grievances. About 1,000 arson cases are reported each year. According to fire and police authorities, there were 1,233 cases in 2022, 1,203 in 2023 and 1,015 in 2024, followed by 927 last year. A total of 700 cases were recorded through September this year.
In one case in July, a man in his 70s in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, who was unhappy with how his apartment complex was managed, argued with a management office employee, then retrieved thinner stored in a basement storage room, poured it on the floor and set it alight. Five people, including the suspect, died. In May last year, a man in his 60s who was angry after losing a divorce case set fire inside a train on Seoul Subway Line 5.
One reason people can set fires in a fit of rage is that the tools are easy to obtain. Because the targets are buildings or facilities rather than people directly, experts say suspects feel less guilt about the act and the risk of repeat offenses is high.
Experts agree that because prevention is difficult, the priority should be strengthening investigative capacity to determine accurately whether a fire was deliberately set. "Arson is hard to prove because the evidence burns away, so the actual number of cases may be higher than official statistics," said Lee Chang-woo, a professor of fire and disaster prevention at Soongsil Cyber University. "In the United States, professional fire investigators take part in police investigations. In South Korea as well, cooperation between police and fire authorities should be strengthened to improve investigative expertise."
Measures to prevent repeat offenses are also needed. "Arson often stems from a desire to broadcast grievances to the world through a crime when no one has listened," said Lee Yoon-ho, a professor of police administration at Dongguk University. "If the cause is a mental illness such as persecutory delusions, appropriate treatment and management are needed while the sentence is being served."
Separately, police visited stores near A's home on the morning of the 22nd to investigate when he bought the lighter. They also conducted a second on-site inspection at the Hanyang and Shinmyung buildings in Yeoksam-dong to pinpoint where the fires started. A fire official said forensic analysis showed that the amount of flammable liquid used and the way it was spread were similar in both buildings.
Police obtained statements from employees at the patent firms in the damaged buildings that A had been looking for a particular staff member. A asked an employee whether that person worked there, and when told the employee did not know the person but would check, A said he did not need help and then set the fire, according to police. If police secure clear evidence that A targeted a specific individual, they plan to consider applying an attempted murder charge. After conducting a second round of questioning on the 22nd, police sought an arrest warrant on charges of arson of an occupied structure resulting in injury.
