Police move in front of the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium in Songpa-gu, Seoul, on the 18th as a blockade protest at a ballot-counting center continues to denounce the shortage of ballot papers in the 9th nationwide local elections. /Courtesy of News1

Police are accelerating their investigation into criminal acts that occurred during protests to blockade the Jamsil ballot-counting site, including the unauthorized entry case at the Handball Gymnasium.

On the 19th, the Songpa Police Station in Seoul said it had identified three people suspected of illegally entering an underground facility at the Jamsil Handball Gymnasium in Seoul on the 7th.

They are suspected of damaging the lock on the door to a machine room in an underground passage near gates 1–3 between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on the 7th, entering the interior, and filming the facility with a mobile phone.

Korea Sports Industry Company (KSPO&CO), which manages the venue's facilities, said a facility management employee stationed inside at the time confirmed the intrusion through closed-circuit (CC) TV and removed them from the scene. The company later filed a complaint against them and welded the door shut on the 11th.

Police plan to summon them soon, investigate the exact circumstances, and then consider whether to apply charges including property damage and trespass into a structure.

An investigation is also underway into the obstruction of business case in which officials from sports bodies under the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) were blocked from entering offices at the Handball Gymnasium. Police are investigating nine suspects and are said to have identified two of them and requested their appearance.

The Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium served as the Songpa District ballot-counting site during the 9th nationwide local elections (the June 3 local elections). Since the 5th, citizens seeking to prevent the removal of ballot boxes and ballots have been blocking the entrances and continuing protests.

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