A Man Gets Caught Climbing Up The Tallest Building In South Korea Without Any Equipment
A man in his twenties is gaining attention for climbing up the side of South Korea’s tallest skyscraper without any equipment.
On June 12, News1 released a video that appears to have been taken by a resident at the Lotte World Tower—the tallest building in Korea and the fifth tallest building in the world.
The video showed a young British man climbing the outer wall of Lotte World Tower, which has a total of 123 floors. Dressed in shorts and carrying parachuting gear, people inside the building got a close-up view of the climber.
He had climbed up to the 72nd floor (about 309 meters high) before he was captured by local fire officers. The Songpa Fire Station reported that they arrived at 7:56 a.m. to “rescue” the man and pulling him into the building. A security officer working on the 42nd floor of the Lotte World Tower spotted the climber and reported him to the police.
The climber was identified as George King-Thompson, a 24-year-old British climber who is known for climbing buildings and BASE jumping, a recreational sport in which people jump off of objects with a parachute. The word BASE is an acronym for the four categories of fixed objects they can jump from: buildings, antennae, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs).
This isn’t the first time King-Thompson made the news for his dangerous climbs and BASE jumps. According to his Instagram, the climber shows himself BASE jumping off of Europe’s tallest rollercoaster “REDFORCE” in 2022, which ended with him having a 2-year suspended prison sentence—banning him from climbing in Spain for two years.
He also BASE jumped off of Berlin’s tallest building and landed on another building, while capturing the whole moment.
Meanwhile, King-Thompson is gaining more attention for the inconvenience he caused by having 93 personnel and 17 equipment to be mobilized for the rescue operation. The police are investigating where and how he climbed the tower from.
