A Seoul court on Friday threw out a pretrial detention warrant request for a 17-year-old suspected of vandalizing the wall of the historic Gyeongbok Palace with graffiti.

The Seoul Central District Court said laws prevented it from issuing such a warrant for a minor unless absolutely necessary. 

While acknowledging the gravity of the crime, the bench also considered the suspect's cooperative attitude during questioning, his apologetic demeanor. the amount of evidence against him and his fixed address.

The 17-year-old, identified by his family name of Lim, is accused of spray-painting the address of an illegal file-sharing site on the wall of Gyeongbok Palace in downtown Seoul at around 1:40 a.m. on December 16.

He was accompanied at the time by a 16-year-old girl, reportedly his girlfriend.

Police say an unknown individual Lim met through social media offered to pay the teenager to deface the historic site.

While Lim avoided arrest, a man in his 20s suspected of a copycat crime the next day was arrested, with the court granting his pretrial detention Saturday due to concerns he could destroy evidence.