SEOUL, Feb 12: South Korean police said on Tuesday they arrested a pensioner who confessed to burning down a 600-year-old gate designated as the country’s number one national treasure because he was angry about a compensation payment.

The stone and wood structure Namdaemun, or “Great South Gate”, was reduced to a charred hulk on Monday, with newspaper editorials lamenting the destruction of an iconic symbol of national pride.

Labourer Heo Eun stood at Namdaemun and summing up the sense of loss and shock shared by many South Koreans said: “It feels like the heart of the nation was destroyed overnight.”

The 69-year-old suspect is a convicted arsonist identified only by his family name Chae, said Namdaemun police station chief Kim Young-soo. Chae was taken into custody late on Monday and told police he had planned the fire for several months.

“(He said) he committed the crime out of anger because he felt the government did not take enough care with the appeal he filed after being insufficiently compensated for redevelopment in his residential area,” Kim told a news conference.

Chae, who was given a suspended sentence after setting fire that singed a small part of a palace in Seoul in 2006, said he used a ladder to climb into the gate’s pavilion. He then poured paint thinner on the floor and set it ablaze, police said.

“I would like to say sorry to all South Koreans. I cannot apologise enough to my children and the people of this country,” Chae told a group of reporters at a police station.—Reuters