'A Person in the Sky'… Breathtaking High-Wire Walk Over Gwanghwamun Stuns Onlookers

〈앵커〉

Yesterday afternoon, a sight of someone walking on a tightrope at the height of a 40-story apartment building in downtown Seoul became a major hot topic.

Reporter Cho Min-ki went to the scene.

〈기자〉

Downtown Gwanghwamun, Seoul.

Citizens stop in their tracks and look up at the sky.

At the end of their gazes is a long tightrope spanning the airspace above Sejong-daero, with a man standing on it.

After swaying his arms back and forth to steady his balance, he carefully takes a step forward.

It is Jaan Roose, a world champion in slackline, an extreme sport that involves performing acrobatic stunts while walking on a high-altitude tightrope.

About five minutes have passed since the tightrope walk began.

Jaan Roose is crossing the sky with his body connected to the wire only by a safety line, with no safety net below the rope.

Slacklining has been performed against the backdrop of major global city landmarks, but this is a first in Seoul.

He crossed back and forth across a 160-meter distance between the Koreana Hotel and the Dong-A Media Center building at a height of 120 meters above the ground, relying on a 2-centimeter-wide rope.

Just when it seemed he was struggling to keep his balance due to stronger-than-expected winds, he soon performed stunts such as hanging by only one hand while waving, and hooking his foot onto the rope before flipping his body and letting go with both hands.

Gasps of awe echoed from downtown streets as well as the rooftops of various buildings.

[Kim Dong-yun / Park Ae-ran, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do : I was so scared that my hands and feet were curling up. (My heart was pounding.) It felt like my heart was racing.]

[Yang Jeong-hun, Seongdong-gu, Seoul : Even doing it about 30 centimeters off the ground is so difficult, and I have no idea how he managed to do it 120 meters up in the sky. It gave me chills all over my body, more than I expected.]

Having completed the round trip across Sejong-daero in 30 minutes, Jaan Roose revealed that he is a fan of traditional Korean tightrope walking.

[Jaan Roose, Slackline Athlete : It is really difficult to do this kind of tightrope walking in a major metropolis like Seoul. For me, it is truly a huge surprise and feels like a miracle.]

(Photo: Red Bull Korea / Video reporting: Kim Heung-ki, Kim Seung-tae | Video editing: Lee So-young | Design: Jeon Yu-geun)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.