FRENCH urban freeclimber Alain Robert attempted to scale the world’s fifth-tallest building Wednesday, getting more than half way up the 123-storey Lotte World Tower in Seoul before security forced him to abandon the ascent.
The 55-year-old, dubbed the “French Spiderman,” made his way up the building bare-handed and without ropes as staff pursued him from inside.
“I climbed about 75 stories and then after that, it was a bit like cat and mouse,” Robert told AFP. “Finally, I decided to surrender.”
He was taken to the rooftop on a maintenance cradle and arrested.
As he awaited processing by police, he told AFP his climb was to celebrate the recent peace-making efforts between the two Koreas and he hoped the authorities would take that into account.
“I may get a hefty fine … but I did it because of what is happening now between South Korea and North Korea,” Robert said.
“That is my way of saying thank you to Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in.”
In the last two months the leader of nuclear-armed North Korea has twice met the South’s president, the two men exchanging smiles and hugs after years of heightened tensions.