This might all sound quaint to most of you. In Korea there have been many taggers and graffiti artists but not many urban explorers, but almost all of this has been foreigners passing through the country inflicting conflicting moral codes. I have made enemies with some taggers, and friends with others who Ive gone exploring with (under the understanding they dont fucking tag or evwn bring any f those tools with them). Once an east European visitor contacted me asking for subway tunnels; I quickly found out he was a tagger and he was later arrested and left the country after a short detainment. There has been a disturbing number of foreign taggers coming here to tag subway cars,which is ridiculous because they will be cleaned off before anyone sees. But I face more profiling as people suspect I am going to places to tag them.

But now there are kids, what we would call Instagram explorers, who are locals here. They are clearly influenced by all the crazy Russian videos as well as other things including graffiti. One kid has posted videos, one in which they bumrush a subway tunnel and tag the inside, another where they infiltrate a construction crane and he writes REVOLUTION on a wall. I will find and share them tomorrow.

There are two working together, both young,both inevitably growing on social media, and both have tried to contact me. I made it clear I could not have contact with them: as a foreigner, I face a higher standard when it comes to property crimes or political activism. If they die or are arrested and have messages in their phone from me, I will be scapegoated: this has happened in Korea many times.

Some of my friends/collaborators have met with them despite me expressing my disapproval. They describe both of them as respectful (being young of course). These kids are definitely bound for either a body bag, a jail cell, or online fame. It has even been suggested I taken them under my wing but in my opinion they have already formed their own way of doing things. One is more extreme with the other,but the second will likely share any location with the first so I cant collaborate with either of them. And it is making me trust my friends less. Plus the rest of my local network will certainly disapprove of further cooperation with them.

Hoping that by posting here, I can get feedback that helps me figure out a way forward.

Avoid contact, emails, texts and calls to/from taggers and associates.
People are trouble.
You ain't the splorer version of Mother Teresa, I hope.
Many taggers are bangers, and you have no idea of their ties, and how authorities perceive them.
Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!!!
Word, INTERPOL, etc.
If yours friends don't respect your position on this... they aren't your friend.
Fools don't make for good company...

Im not sure this feedback is worth much, I don't understand the laws or culture there. I suspect there is some degree of proof required under Korean law before they can charge you with a crime like tagging isn't there? Like having a can of Krylon in you back pack.

Posted by 2Xplorations Im not sure this feedback is worth much, I don't understand the laws or culture there. I suspect there is some degree of proof required under Korean law before they can charge you with a crime like tagging isn't there? Like having a can of Krylon in you back pack.

Guilt by association applies here I think.
They can lean on you if they think you're dirty.
No one needs that kind of extra trouble...

Just ignore them. Nowadays kids would do way too risky shit for Instagram fame. If they seek for adrenaline, anything can happen. How old are the kids anyay? Are they less than 19? (i googled what counts "adult" in South Korea)

I've actually been curious for a while now, so this seems like a good time to ask... Are you Korean or a Korean resident there? Your ease of use of the English language always led me to believe you had moved there later in life, but I also know people (Mexico in particular) who have never left their country and speak/write better English than I do! Since you touched on the issue of nationality, I'm guessing that you are not a Korean citizen. I've lived in a foreign country as a guest on a visa before, and their hospitality was conditional on my behavior there. I think this is a sort of unspoken law in almost any country in the world.

As far as the taggers, I would do my best to avoid their association, if for no other reason than it sounds like the Korean government follows a sort of "guilt by association," rule. You certainly wouldn't want to be tagged (sorry - no pun intended) as an accomplice in any of these kid's misadventures. I've had a couple run-ins with local taggers and I've been lucky. All of my experiences with them have been positive, but once I left that location, I leave any association with them behind. I've had a few of them ask for locations and I've never shared anything sensitive - even a little bit. Like I said, all of the taggers I've met have been friendly, polite, even helpful, but I don't really know them and I definitely don't know who their friends are. Just because they are friendly doesn't mean their associates share their hospitable attitude.

It sounds like on some level you know the answer to your own question. Keep a healthy distance. They'll get the message without you even having to do or say anything to them. If they don't, then that is a different issue altogether that would need to be addressed, but I suspect they will just lose interest in you and go on with their exploits with or without your company.

What does your gut tell you about the issue? Over the years I've learned to listen to my gut instinct. I almost always regret it if I ignore what my gut is telling me to do!

Keep us posted and good luck. Hopefully, this or someone else's post will help you in deciding how to proceed...

I don't know if this is my place to comment at all however i'm one of the younger members on uer and kind of know their thinking. If I was in their position of gaining fame while doing stuff that gave me an elevated social status as well my ego would be massive. Even if they do respect you I doubt they would listen to what you have to say if you tell them not to do it. Best thing to do in my opinion would be to either block them or stop responding, if your friends are trying to get you to help these kids out and risk getting in trouble with the law if they get caught I would tell them to stick it.

Hopefully this helps, good luck

Thanks for the advice.

I'm not so much worried about the justice system regularly, as I am public perceptions going forward. Society here tends to be quite reactionary against anything foreign-seeming, so if a couple dumb Korean kids got in trouble, people would check their phones and social media, and if they saw a white guy giving them advice, that person would be singled out. You see it all the time: take a look at this article, about a Canadian busted for weed, then you get to the end and it mentions 42 people were busted, but 41 weren't newsworthy because they were locals. That's exactly what I'm afraid of happening.

FYI, I am as white as possible: in the last Canadian election I was what the Conservatives called "old-stock Canadian." Because I'm an outsider, even though I've been exploring here since 2005, it is entirely possible some new locals could spring up and say they're more legit than me. The main tagger's YouTube channel is apparently "Real Korean."

Also, here are URLs to the two most problematic videos.

This one, about a minute in, he tags the subway tunnel. The guy making the video is the main one I am concerned with; his accomplice I am pretty certain is the other one people are now trying to get me to meet.
https://www.facebook.com/ParkSeongHyun2/videos/vb.100005701740971/537606463106074

In the second, around the 25-second mark while infiltrating an active construction site, he scrolls "REVOLUTION" on a wall. This comes after he tried to make contact with me and I told him I don't associate with taggers.
https://youtu.be/U4B5nfPHKzQ

Several months ago, I told him:

Thanks for the friend request, but I really can't associate with taggers, especially as a foreigner. As an urban explorer I have to respect the places I visit, and I can't help anyone who would harm them.

He replied with a thumbs-up and a "Good" and we never exchanged any other words. I don't think he understood me. Another friend was annoyed he was calling what he does parkour, and got him to stop using parkour hashtags.

I think mulletcat is exactly right, that he could want my respect, or he could just focus on the growing number of admirers who don't see any problem with what he's doing. He has no real motivation to listen to me about what he shouldn't do and what urban exploration is, so I'd rather just block him out as well as any of his collaborators.

Posted by telefontubbie Just ignore them.

This.

answering question with a question here because I'm not exactly clear what you find difficult making the decision to accept/decline. Why are you on the fence about it?

Once I ran into the serial tagger the "Phantom" at Pennhurst.
We chatted amicably for a while.
He was brazen, intelligent, organized, and interesting.
Hiding in plain sight.

However he expressed no interest to swap text etc, nor did I. He understood the fine line between being friendly and privacy. Anything that went beyond this chance encounter would have been awkward and probably would have had negative consequences. A better understanding of him made his numerous tags a bit less disagreeable to me.
Good as it gets.
Unfortunately he was leaving the steam plant as I was getting ready to shoot it

Posted by Deuterium answering question with a question here because I'm not exactly clear what you find difficult making the decision to accept/decline. Why are you on the fence about it?

I'm not on the fence. My friends are, and are trying to get me to give these kids a chance.

Posted by Steed I'm not on the fence. My friends are, and are trying to get me to give these kids a chance.

Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way ~ Patton

I hate feeling like I'm watching my friends make bad decisions, especially when I feel like I don't have a choice but to step back from THEM to avoid the back splash from the potential mess. I think you've likely done your due diligence, and, really, the most of what you can do in the situation. You certainly seem an articulate person here, which makes me think it's likely you've expressed both your position and your reasoning to them. At the end of the day, the only person's boots you can keep out of the mud is your own. Good luck.

I just found out today apparently because of the graffiti they made in the two videos I posted, they were contacted by the police who fined them a total of roughly $1000, and that was the end of it. Apparently they no longer tag, but they didn't even have to take down the videos.

And they more recently posted a newer video of a crane climb, with my friend who is advocating for them, and brought along a fourth guy who caused some damage with a fire extinguisher or canister (I can't be bothered to find it).
https://www.youtub...atch?v=LU3MsIdoFYY

So, they're repentant but still have the videos up, and have a new one with a new friend (probably influenced by their earlier videos) committing another crime.

So dumb I don't want to be around them.

...And I just found out some of my friends took one of these guys (the safest, at least) to the best and most secretive UE location in Korea. It's unlikely he wouldn't share it with his friends.