A belated report has surfaced that two men chased a car, blocked it and threatened the driver on a deserted road in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, late at night. Na Kyung-won, a lawmaker of the People Power Party, shared footage of the incident and criticized the state of public safety, asking how the country had reached this point.
A Car Follows in the Dead of Night, and Two Men Jump Out
According to political sources on the 22nd, Na posted on her Facebook page the previous day a dashcam video that had been released on the 18th by the YouTube channel Han Mun-chul TV. The footage was recorded on the night of July 29 on a road in Majang-myeon, Icheon, Gyeonggi Province.
The person who submitted the video, identified only as A, said the car had been parked facing the wrong way on the shoulder of a quiet road while A talked with an acquaintance for about 30 minutes, and that A was about to drive off.
In the video, a car coming from the opposite direction stops beside A's vehicle. When A turns the car around and pulls away, the other vehicle also changes direction and begins to follow.
As the other car kept closing in, A tried to move aside to let it pass, but it did not go by. Instead it stopped near A's car, and two occupants got out and ran toward A.
Feeling threatened, A immediately drove off and left the scene.
A said two unidentified foreign men rolled down their window and said something, then suddenly grinned, blocked the car and jumped out. A also said the driver kicked the hood of A's car and that the passenger approached holding something in one hand, as if about to strike downward with it.
The footage alone, however, does not confirm the nationality of the people in the other car or what the object A suspected was a weapon actually was. It is also difficult to determine from the video alone what had taken place between the two sides before the incident.
Na Says Public Safety Has Collapsed, Calls for Arrests and Harsh Punishment
A filed a police report after the incident but said no suspect was identified. A said police responded on the 11th to the effect that the vehicle involved would be difficult to find.
Na sharply criticized that response. She wrote that men presumed to be foreigners chased the car in a terrifying confrontation, but that the answer from police was to give up because the vehicle could not be found.
She went on to say the entire country was sliding into a lawless "Crime City" where criminals roam the streets.
She also raised questions about how police conducted the investigation. Na said that while police gave up on catching the perpetrators without properly checking security cameras or canvassing the area, the men could target a second or third law-abiding citizen. She called for an urgent fact-finding inquiry and strong disciplinary action against officers who, she said, abandoned the investigation by telling the victim to give up and cast aside public safety.
She added that all available investigative resources should be mobilized immediately, even issuing a nationwide wanted notice if necessary, to arrest and severely punish the perpetrators. Law enforcement that cannot protect the lives and safety of citizens has no reason to exist, she said.
As the video spread online, reactions have been divided. Some internet users said the scene itself — a car chasing another late at night, blocking its path and occupants rushing out — was threatening, and expressed unease.
Others said the dashcam footage alone should not be used to draw conclusions about what led up to the incident. They argued that it should first be established what happened between the two sides before the other car began following A, and that the full video should be reviewed to get a fuller picture.
