Rogue S. Korean conscript captured

SEOUL—A South Korean military conscript who killed five members of his unit near the border with North Korea was captured on Monday after wounding himself following a 24-hour standoff with thousands of troops.

Defense ministry spokesperson Kim Min-seok said the 22-year-old sergeant, who was cornered in a small forested area 10 kilometers south of the heavily militarized border, had shot himself in the side and had been taken to hospital.

“We have retrieved his gun and all the ammunition he was carrying,” Kim told reporters.

Thousands of soldiers backed by special forces units and Army helicopters had surrounded Lim, since he was tracked down on Sunday afternoon.

Armed with a K-2 assault rifle and a stash of ammunition, he had gone on the run on Saturday night after killing five fellow soldiers and wounding seven others at a frontline border outpost.

Surrender call

Prior to turning his gun on himself, Lim had spoken via a mobile phone with his father and brother, both of whom had urged him to surrender.

An Army officer who requested anonymity told Yonhap news agency that Lim had been in tears when he asked troops to hand the phone over to his family.

Lim had traded fire with his pursuers late on Sunday before digging in for the night in a section of forest outside Myungpa-ri village in eastern Gangwon province.

One platoon leader was wounded in the arm in the exchange and the defense ministry said another soldier was wounded on Monday by friendly fire.

Lim was due to be discharged in the next few months after completing his compulsory military service.

The motive behind the shooting was unclear, but Army sources said he had difficulty adapting to the military, and psychological evaluators had advised senior officers to pay him special attention.

The shooting spree triggered a massive military manhunt involving more than 4,000 soldiers.

Around 500 village residents, most of them elderly, were evacuated from their homes to a school building as a precaution.