A Chinese restaurant in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, which was targeted in a midnight lacquer spray attack, has been revealed to have undergone an investigation by a government agency due to its name.

In April, someone filed a report with the Korean Intellectual Property Office, claiming that the restaurant was "gaining unfair profits by using the name of the Chinese president" and "utilizing it in menu items such as 'Xi Jinping Special Rice'." Consequently, the restaurant was subjected to a related investigation.

The person who filed the report with the Intellectual Property Office is known to be a different individual from the suspects involved in the vandalism.

The Intellectual Property Office, which received the report and conducted the investigation, reportedly concluded the case without imposing any sanctions.

It was revealed that the restaurant had previously suffered similar vandalism in July, when spray paint was smeared across various areas.

Around 2:40 AM on September 24, four Chinese nationals whose faces were concealed with masks and hats broke into the Chinese restaurant and committed acts of vandalism by spraying lacquer and paint throughout the store. They also poured a substance presumed to be pesticide over the ingredients before fleeing.

Having entered South Korea on tourist visas between a month and a week prior to the incident, the suspects had already fled back to China immediately after the crime.

They reportedly scattered to various locations, including Yantai and Shanghai in China.

The police are focusing on the possibility that they committed the crime out of resentment toward the Chinese restaurant, which shares its name with China's top leader.

The police plan to request Red Notices from Interpol to China as soon as arrest warrants are issued.

According to police and other sources, the owner of the Chinese restaurant changed the restaurant's name to a general term that does not evoke a specific individual and reopened yesterday, September 29.

Reported by Lee Hyeon-yeong | Video by Kim Gi-hyeon | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News