If you have ever been fortunate enough to the North Gate you know how tragic this is. The BBC is reporting that arson is suspected, but I can not find it on their website.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/02 ... _10_08.txt

South Korea's centuries-old city gate collapses in fire; site regarded as top landmark

By: Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea -- A 610-year-old gate regarded as South Korea's top cultural landmark collapsed after catching fire Sunday night.

The fire burned the wooden structure on the top of Namdaemun -- the gate of a wall that once encircled the capital and is known as South Korea's national treasure.

Police have not determined determine what caused the fire, Sohn Young-jin, a police official, said Monday. He did not give further details.

The South Korean government opened the landmark gate, officially named Sungnyemun, to public in 2006 for first time in nearly a century.

The gate had been off-limits to the public since Japanese colonial authorities built an electric tramway nearby in 1907. Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula in 1910-45.

The gate was renovated in the 1960s and again in 2005.

I was stationed at Osan AB in South Korea and have been to Seoul several times. The gate you mention is almost at the center of modern Seoul. For your information, South Korea is called Tae Han Min Kuk in Korean(Han Kuk). The whole country is called Chosun which means the Land of the Morning Calm.

An yung hee kay say yo.