British man in 20s arrested for climbing Lotte Tower

A British man using bare hands to climb the Lotte Tower, which stands at 555 meters tall and the fifth tallest building in the world, without official approval was arrested by the police in four hours.

The Songpa District Police Office said on Monday that George King-Thompson was arrested for building invasion climbing the building without equipment. According to the police, King-Thompson started to climb the building with his bare hands and parachute backpack on his back around 5 a.m. The security office of the building spotted him and reported to the police around 7:50 a.m.

The Fire Department, along with the police, mobilized 12 vehicles and had King-Thompson go on a gondola that was attached to the outside of the building around 300 meters high, between the 72nd and 73rd floor of the Lotte Tower building around 9 a.m. The building consists of six underground floors and 123 stories above ground.

Police investigation revealed that King-Thompson had dreamed of climbing the Lotte Tower and gliding from it. He had devised the plan for more than six months. He arrived in Korea three days ago, spent a day in a motel and two days sleeping outside. He visited Korea to perform ‘base jumping’, an extreme sport where one jumps off tall buildings with parachutes. In 2019, he was arrested and jailed for three months for scaling the Shard, the highest building in Britain at 87 stories and 310 meters tall, in 2019.

In 2018, French mountain climber Alain Robert had been arrested for climbing up to the 75th floor of the Lotte Tower on obstruction of business. He had not been penalized, however, as Lotte did not wish to have him punished.


facthee@donga.com