The Seoul Metro will install warnings in English around its depots, following several incidents in which foreign nationals illegally entered the premises and vandalized trains with graffiti. The municipal operator aims to deter groups from abroad who have caused damage and then quickly left South Korea.
Seoul Metro, the municipal operator of the Seoul Metro, will install warning signs in English around its depots.
The decision follows a series of cases of illegal graffiti attributed to foreign nationals. According to the company, the intruders entered the depots in the early morning hours, spray-painted parked trains, and then left South Korea shortly thereafter.
Over the past five years, Seoul Metro has reported four incidents of this type at its depots, including at the depot near Gunja Station—served by Lines 5 and 7—in 2024 and 2025.
Clear Warnings on Depot Fences
Seoul Metro CEO Kim Tae-gyun had called for the installation of clear warnings along depot fences as early as April.
According to the operator, the existing signs varied in size, were mounted at irregular intervals, and had been installed at different times. Additionally, the text was not always in line with recent legislative changes.
The new signs will have a standardized design and will explicitly mention the criminal penalties for trespassing on railway premises and for vandalism.
The design will be modeled after warnings recently installed at depots in Gyeonggi Province, including Moran in Seongnam and Jichuk in Goyang.
Russians, Americans, Australians, and Belgians in Recent Cases
One of the cases cited by authorities occurred on January 17, 2024, when three Russian citizens allegedly trespassed at the Gunja depot.
According to the police, the suspects allegedly scaled a wall approximately 4 meters high around 3:10 a.m. and painted graffiti on a train that was about 4 meters wide and 1.5 meters high. Investigators later determined that they had boarded a flight to China that same day.
Two months before that incident, South Korean police arrested a U.S. citizen in his 30s suspected of having spray-painted graffiti at 155 locations in Seoul’s Yongsan District.
The most recent case reported by the South Korean media took place in Busan, where an Australian man in his 20s and a Belgian man in his 30s are suspected of breaking into the Daejeo depot of the Busan Metro operator.
According to police, the two allegedly entered the premises around 2:51 a.m. through a fence near a test track, painted a subway train, and left at 3:09.
Escape by KTX to the airport
Investigators say that during their escape, the two suspects wore masks, changed their clothes several times, and paid in cash, getting off at different stations to make it harder to track them.
Later, they reportedly took a KTX train—South Korea’s high-speed rail service—to Seoul, then headed to Incheon International Airport. According to police, the two boarded a flight to Brunei around 11:00 a.m. the following day.
Seoul Metro points out that such incidents cause damage to trains and incur repair costs, in addition to the safety risks associated with unauthorized entry into technical areas.
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