The Western District Court, which the reporter looked back on... "as is the scar here and there."

■ Host: Anchor Lee Ha-rin, anchor Jeong Jin-hyung
■ Starring: YTN Social Affairs Reporter Yoon Woong-sung

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN News Special] when quoting.

[Anchor]
Our reporter visited the Seoul Western District Court, which was damaged by the raid of the rally participants.

I'm at the press studio of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Yoon Woong-sung. Welcome.

[Anchor]
Reporter Yoon, you went to the Western District Court this morning, right? How is the situation now?

[Reporter]
In short, it's very vigilant. The police are still guarding. I think I can tell you this. The road to the Western District Court itself is blocked in case of a possible situation. The road itself was blocked, but I was able to check my reporter identity and enter. On the sidewalk, where I show my ID and head to the main gate, there is a steel barricade that can be used by the police to stop protestors, but it was broken and was rolling around. Seeing that, the atmosphere of the rally yesterday and the day before yesterday was strict. I was able to feel this, and I was able to enter the court gate after checking whether I was a reporter once again.

[Anchor]
That's this morning's screen, right? Can you explain what the situation is?

[Anchor]
I think the barricades you mentioned earlier are put aside.

[Reporter]
That's right. It's a mobile barricade, but it's all broken, so the police haven't cleaned it up yet and they've collected it on one side. So in order to go inside, I had to check the court staff, civil petitioners who came to do court work, and reporters. The court site was not allowed to enter, but the outer wall was damaged, so it was controlled so that it could not enter the side and the back of the building that is currently under repair.

[Anchor]
You can enter certain areas, but you can't enter certain areas, and even if it's an entry area, you can enter if you show your ID, so how about inside the building? What is the situation when you go in?

[Reporter] It's not easy to enter the
building, but if it's confirmed that you're a reporter up to the site, you can enter whether you're a photographer or a reporter. But to get back inside the courthouse, I was able to check if I was a reporter entering the Western District Court. It's originally at the front door of both doors. As it has been on the news many times, one door is damaged, so I had to use the other door. So I was able to enter the court after checking my identity at least three times. I went there this morning, and even this was controlled by the court for restoration work, so from 3 p.m. today, reporters will not be allowed to enter until a separate announcement is made. So now even reporters can't easily enter.

[Anchor]
There were a lot of broken glass right now, but are the broken glass cleaned up?

[Reporter]
That's right. I inspected the items and went inside, and everything like glass was removed. But if you look closely, the scars remain very serious. I've been entering the Western District Court for nearly two years, and I was shocked at how the court could change like this.

[Anchor]
If you look at the video of the attack, there are a lot of broken glass, but have all these windows been replaced? How is the current situation?

[Reporter]
As soon as I go in first, I'll explain what the situation was like. If you go in, there is a lobby on the first floor. There's a lobby on the first floor, and there's a TV in the center so civil petitioners can watch it while waiting. It broke down because it was broken to see who hit the TV, and there's a machine that picks out the order of civil complaints. The machines were also broken, and the first-floor watchroom right next to the mob who came in after tearing off the shutters seemed to have suffered major damage, but the door was tightly closed and covered, so I couldn't see inside, and I fell on the floor of a sign that said watch, and the security system broke down, so I could predict how terrible it was inside.

[Anchor]
If all the unmanned document issuing machines are damaged, is the civil complaint handling work in progress now?

[Reporter]
Some of the complaints were handled by employees, and not all the machines were broken. Some machines remained on the second floor, so I was working on issuing documents and other tasks.

[Anchor]
We also checked the screen of the protesters opening the shutters and entering at the time, but has that part been restored?

[Reporter]
As I said earlier, the shutter remains bent and damaged, having to control that side and enter the rest of the door.

[Anchor]
In the case of windows, if the broken state is maintained when the window is broken, conditions for outsiders to come in again are prepared. There's also been news that these things are replaced by other things, what's the situation?

[Reporter]
The windows still didn't have enough time to replace them, so they were reinforced with plastic boards or something. So, I temporarily blocked the plastic planks with tape and stood them up. But there was a big window in the hallway, and it broke, so I blocked it with plastic, but it kept falling because it was a window that opened directly from the outside. So I could see the staff constantly holding on to it or later working on a tree-like splint to barely stand it up, and I couldn't get into their work space, but when I looked from the hallway, several windows were broken in the office, and they were covered with plastic.

[Anchor]
The first floor is really chaotic, but have you been to the second floor or other floors? What's the situation?

[Reporter]
That's right. I went up to the second floor right away. There was a place called the Family Relations Registration System that was in charge of tasks such as renaming, birth registration, and divorce, but the numbering machine was also broken here. Microphones and speakers are installed so that employees and civil petitioners can talk, but the machine was also broken and was on the verge of falling dangerously. Fortunately, the civil complaint machines on the second floor were operating normally. Employees also experienced this for the first time, so they sometimes came out to watch the situation coming and going to repair it, and they looked embarrassed. I went to the 3rd and 4th floors. The 3rd and 4th floors are mainly courtrooms. It's a courtroom and there are panels that show what kind of trial is going on. But it was also broken, so I could see several black screens.

[Anchor]
So, up to the second floor is a space where ordinary civil petitioners can go, but it was damaged, and the 3rd and 4th floors are mainly legal, but it was similar there. By the way, I know that the 5th floor or higher is the place where judges usually stay, how is the situation here?

[Reporter]
That's right. Journalists are not allowed to enter on the 5th floor or higher. So, it's a 10-story building, and more than five floors are used only by judges' offices or court officials. I asked the court. Likewise, I cleaned up all the big trash yesterday, and I'm working on the damaged computer by replacing it with something that I don't use. According to the court's explanation, there is no problem in carrying out essential tasks such as trials, but as you know, protesters stormed to the 7th floor.

[Anchor]
There was a saying that I went around looking for Judge Cha Eun-kyung who issued a warrant.

[Reporter]
That's why Judge Cha's office is said to have been particularly damaged, but I think it will take quite a long time to recover all these parts.

[Anchor]
Then the place where the intrusion started was the back gate, not the front gate, right? Shall we start with the back gate and point it out again?

[Reporter]
The back gate was still parked and blocked by the police, and all the signs and things like that fell, and I could still see that all the exterior walls fell. In the court, sandwich panels were attached to the wall to cover the damaged area. The court is on the 22nd, and by the day after tomorrow, we plan to remove some broken or non-functional tiles and cover them all using sandwich panels. And we plan to replace it with the same finishing material as the existing tile in March.

[Anchor]
How long will it take to recover all of this?

[Reporter]
I don't know how long it will take, but what's clear is that there's a coldness right now, and I suddenly need to order a finishing material, but I thought it would take quite a long time for this production. The same goes for broken windows. It will be custom-made and installed separately this Thursday and Friday.

[Anchor]
So, a lot of parts are damaged regardless of the inside and outside of the court, so isn't there any ordinary citizens who use this area as a daily street, centered on the court? You'll be watching all of these things, but you've met them. These everyday citizens?

[Reporter]
Since it's a weekday today, people with work have to go to work, and neighbors have to come out and walk, but most of them lament and say, "How can this happen?" and it's not right to be this violent. There may be various opinions on the outcome of the trial and the result of the arrest examination, but violence is not correct, right? These were most of these positions. Let's hear from the citizens.

[Kim Hyo-soon / Ahyeon-dong, Seoul: I was so scared because I took control of all the roads to the pedestrian road. If you want to claim your thoughts, you have to keep order.... ]

[Neighborhood resident: How can you break down a building? It's all a waste of state money, it's taxes. ]

[Anchor]
Yoon has been in the Western District Court for a long time. You were in the Western District the day before this riot?

[Reporter]
That's right. There was also a day when the actual examination of President Yoon's arrest warrant was conducted. I went to the Western District Court on the 18th and originally tried to enter the court. But there were so many protesters that I couldn't enter because there was no gap with the police. So I covered the atmosphere of the site. Even though the screening was not finished, the protesters crossing the courthouse wall were there, as you may have seen on the news, and most of them were young people. However, there was no one to stop him, but rather, these situations happened by clapping and clapping and advocating or clapping to the young people.

[Anchor]
It's still before the warrant review results come out, right?

[Reporter]
Even before he came out, he talked about it and pushed it for the students.

[Anchor]
It was already in a state of exasperation.

[Reporter]
I could feel that it was a very dangerous atmosphere. Since then, the reporters have withdrawn, and when an arrest warrant was issued for President Yoon at 3 a.m. the next day, the court raid took place like this. I hope you keep this in mind because even if someone induces an invasion of the court or is swept away by the atmosphere, the responsibility is to enter the court and the person who committed the violence loses.

[Anchor]
I see.

So far, we have covered the atmosphere of the damaged Seoul Western District Court with Yoon Woong-sung, a reporter from the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Thank you for talking today.