A Korean restaurant named after Chinese President Xi Jinping was vandalized and the suspect has fled back to China

South Korean police said a local restaurant named after Chinese President Xi Jinping was vandalized by a group of Chinese nationals who fled South Korea and returned to China immediately after the attack.

Surveillance video of this restaurant in Seongnam, Nangyeonggi Province, south of Seoul, showed that in the early morning of September 24, four masked men broke into the store, smashed furniture and sprayed varnish.

The restaurant owner told local media that he named it "Xi Jinping" because he "wanted it to be the best Chinese restaurant in (South Korea)." "There was no political intention," he added.

Chosun Ilbo reported that the restaurant had been in business for eight years, but it was only in the past year that it began to receive requests to change its name.

Last August, when news broke that Xi would attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea, the boss said he received dozens of calls related to these demands. Some even offered to pay, he said.

He told the Chosun Ilbo: "Some people who claim to be doing business in China have offered to pay a large sum of money as long as we change our name. They are very persistent."

In April this year, someone complained to South Korea's intellectual property department about a dish called "Xi Jinping's Special Fried Rice" on the restaurant's menu, but the department eventually closed the case and determined that there was no problem.

The boss said last week's attack was the largest he has encountered in the past year. He told local media that the property damage was approximately 15 million won (US$10,800; 72,000 yuan; NT$324,000).

Xi Jinping's restaurant was closed for five days after the attack and reopened on Tuesday (September 29). The owner said his team is now considering a new name for the restaurant.

Police said on Tuesday that the four suspects were Chinese men aged between 20 and 40. They are believed to have fled to Shanghai and Yantai, Shandong Province after the attack.

Police said they planned to apply for an Interpol Red Notice for the four men. A red notice is not an arrest warrant but a request for police around the world to detain a person pending the completion of extradition proceedings.

According to screenshots shared online, Xi Jinping's restaurant serves a wide range of Chinese dishes and also includes some Korean dishes on the menu. Google users give the restaurant an average rating of four out of five stars.