ELDERLY neighbours pointed and looked puzzled. Mothers taking their children to school stopped and stared. Passing motorists braked and gawked. Overnight, the home of their mild-mannered South Korean neighbour in New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, had been transformed into a political protest billboard.
The handpainted banners tacked to the front of the four-bedroom home rented by the Korean Embassy were certainly eye-catching. 'The President Kim kicked us out, we have nowhere to go', said one. 'Abominable cruelty', screamed another. 'God save us' pleaded a third.
Although they probably didn't realise, the passers-by were witnessing the latest twist in a one-man diplomatic rebellion which has made waves from Wellington to Seoul. The two-month affair could read like an Evelyn Waugh black comedy, except nobody involved in New Zealand is laughing.
Not the runaway diplomat, Choi Seoung-jin, who is worried about his life and his family if he has to return home; not South Korean officials who are upset and embarrassed at what they say are Mr Choi's totally groundless claims; and not the New Zealand Government which is trying to win friends and trade in Asia.
At the centre of such international concern is a small, stubborn 51-year-old man. Korean sources paint Mr Choi as a petty bureaucrat unhappy with his lack of career progress at the embassy in Wellington where he has spent the past three years.
Although he had the grand-sounding title of vice-consul, they say that was the lowest diplomatic ranking at the small eight-person embassy. In reality he was a communications engineer, and also helped issue visas.
Before he disappeared again after his protest last week, Mr Choi appeared to be under heavy strain about his predicament. But he was adamant about the justness of his cause to expose what he said was President Kim's moves to authoritarian control, not democracy in his homeland.
