Prosecutors in South Korea announced on Wednesday that they have indicted a 42-year-old man identified as Ahn Byeong-hee for attempting to attack the Chinese Embassy in Seoul and breaking a glass gate at a local police station while wearing a Captain America costume.
Multiple South Korean news agencies published a photo of the man sporting the superhero costume and his iconic American star shield.
The Yonhap News Agency, which identified the man only by his last name, described him as a “known” supporter of embattled South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who is currently not acting in the head of state capacity after being impeached for a failed attempt to impose martial law in December. Yoon said at the time that the martial law decree was necessary because the leftist opposition Democratic Party was obstructing his agenda in the National Assembly, the federal legislature, but military rule lasted mere hours after National Assembly lawmakers broke through barriers keeping them out of legislative chambers and assembled to vote against the decree.
Yoon rapidly apologized as his own People Power Party (PPP) turned on him and supported impeachment. South Koreans appeared united in favor of impeachment in early polls, but support for Yoon surged as the Democrats impeached interim President Han Duck-soo for dubious claims that he had not moved quickly enough to facilitate Yoon’s impeachment and authorities arrested Yoon.
Yoon’s impeachment trial concluded in February but the constitutional court in charge of it has yet to rule on the matter. As the nation awaits its president’s fate, both left- and right-wing rallies have organized, some erupting in clashes with police and other chaotic situations.
Yonhap reported that Ahn is facing charges of attempted trespassing and damaging public property for his alleged attacks on the Chinese embassy. It did not offer any details on why he had targeted the Chinese embassy or if the alleged storming of the embassy was related to any advocacy in favor of or against Yoon. The Korea JoongAng Daily, a South Korean paper of record, identified Ahn as a longtime supporter of Yoon, however, who has in the past claimed to have some nebulous ties to the United States government.
“At the time of the embassy break-in attempt, Ahn was wearing his Captain America costume and had previously made threats of a ‘terror attack’ on the compound,” JoongAng reported. “Earlier that week, he also caused a disturbance at South Korea’s state human rights watchdog, once again dressed as the popular superhero.”
The incident for which Ahn was arrested allegedly occurred on February 14. JoongAng indicated that Ahn had previously claimed “that he had worked for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Israel’s Mossad, and the U.S. military” and had allegedly falsified American military identification.
A man appearing to be Ahn and identified as a 42-year-old man had previously appeared in broadcasts with KBS News, a major network in the country, dressed in a full Captain America suit.
The Chinese embassy issued a statement in February, prior to the confirmation of Ahn’s indictment, that it was “concerned and regretting this case happened,” without elaborating.
The Ahn case follows several extreme actions by reported Yoon supporters during deliberations leading to the potential removal of Yoon from office. On Wednesday, Yonhap confirmed the death of a 79-year-old man who set himself on fire on a rooftop near Seoul City Hall on March 7. The incident was the second of its kind since the impeachment, and the second in which a self-immolator, seeking to protest Yoon’s arrest, died. Graphic videos of self-immolation appeared in South Korean media.
Yoon won a bitterly fought election against the head of the Democrats, Lee Jay-myung, in 2022 and has faced accusations of corruption and abuse of power from the left almost incessantly since. On the night of December 3, he appeared on television and announced the imposition of martial law, claiming, without evidence, that the Democrats had been infiltrated by North Korean communists and were a national security threat to South Korea.
“I declare martial law to protect the Republic of Korea from the threats of North Korean communist forces, to immediately eradicate the unscrupulous pro-Pyongyang anti-state forces that pillage the freedom and happiness of our people and to protect free constitutional order,” Yoon declared.
The National Assembly can vote to override martial law but, under martial law, all political activity is illegal, including National Assembly meetings. Democrat lawmakers defied the ban on meeting, storming their own offices and breaking into windows protected by soldiers Yoon had deployed. They successfully voted down the martial law before dawn, forcing Yoon to apologize.
While conservatives largely opposed the martial law decree, they also opposed Yoon’s arrest and depicted attempts to oust him as a violent seizure of power by the Democrats. South Korean conservatives rallied by the thousands in the freezing January weather, brandishing posters carrying the slogan “stop the steal” popularized by American conservatives against former President Joe Biden. Conservative rallies also began featuring “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the Village People song “YMCA” in an attempt to court President Donald Trump’s attention and American intervention in the situation.
The Trump administration has not weighed in on impeachment procedures at press time.
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