South Korean police said Wednesday they wanted to interrogate the wife of Belgian Ambassador Peter Lescouhier after receiving a complaint about an alleged attack on a staff member in a clothing store.
Footage from a security camera showed a woman slapping a storekeeper who tried to stop her from approaching a colleague. The colleague had suspected that he was trying to leave the store with a piece of clothing that he had not paid for.
The video of the April 9 incident appeared on social networks this week, prompting an angry response from some South Koreans who apologized to the Belgian embassy.
Filming also appeared to show Xiang Xueqiu talking to two police officers on the spot. Since then, the police have not been able to contact her, saying that this is due to the fact that Xiang was in the hospital.
Reuters could not identify which hospital and could not contact her immediately for comments about the alleged incident.
“The police who were sent to the scene identified her as the wife of the Belgian ambassador,” said a police officer at a police station in Yongsan, an area of the capital where the embassy and the store are located.
“I was looking for her participation, but, as you can see in the local media, she cannot be contacted since she is in the hospital.”
South Korea’s foreign ministry told Reuters that it had asked the Belgian embassy to co-operate in the matter and would take appropriate action based on further police investigations.
The Belgian embassy in Seoul confirmed that Xiang was hospitalized, but did not comment. A spokeswoman for the Belgian Foreign Ministry declined to comment.
Some South Koreans have expressed frustration at what they say are unfair privileges for diplomats and their families.
“I believe that diplomatic immunity is important and should be respected, but given the incident, the ambassador’s family is involved … the ambassador should apologize officially,” Lee Hyun-koo, 32, told Reuters.
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