S. Korean soldier who killed 5 arrested after day-long standoff

USPA News - A day-long standoff with a South Korean soldier, who went on a deadly shooting spree at a guard post along the heavily militarized border with North Korea, came to an end on Monday when he was arrested after a failed suicide attempt, officials said. The incident came to a conclusion at around 2:45 p.m. local time on Monday when the 22-year-old sergeant, who has only been identified as Lim, shot himself in the side in an apparent suicide attempt.

He was taken into custody minutes later and rushed to a local hospital, bringing to an end a 24-hour-long standoff on a hillside in the border town of Goseong. Lim`s condition was not immediately known, but a defense ministry spokesman said Lim was still alive. The shooting spree began at around 8:15 p.m. local time on Saturday when Lim, a sergeant from the 22nd Infantry Division, opened fire using a K-2 rifle at a guard post in Goseong. The eastern town, in Gangwon province, is located along the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas. The defense ministry said that Lim fired about a dozen shots with his military-issued rifle, killing five fellow service members and injuring seven others. He also set off a grenade nearby that caused no casualties. Lim then fled the scene, prompting a massive manhunt by police and the army. At around 2:20 p.m. on Sunday, Lim was spotted at a roadside checkpoint in Goseong, leading to a shootout in which another service member was injured. Soldiers chased Lim and surrounded him in the area of an elementary school, which continued until Monday afternoon when Lim attempted to kill himself. Lim`s father had earlier made a futile plea to his son to surrender himself peacefully. The motive for the killings, which happened at the end of Lim`s 6-hour shift, remains unknown, but officials have said his behavior had previously raised concern because he experienced difficulties in adapting himself to military life. Precautionary measures were taken to stop any possible further attacks against the military and to prevent Lim from crossing the border into North Korea. There was no indication, however, that the attack had any links to the ongoing inter-Korean conflict. The Korean Demilitarized Zone, despite its name, is the world`s most heavily militarized border as the North and South remain in a technical state of war after the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty. In July 2011, four South Korean service members were killed and a fifth was injured when a 19-year-old fellow soldier opened fire inside the military barracks on Ganghwa Island. The gunman then tried to commit suicide with a grenade but failed, after which he was taken into custody. And in June 2005, eight South Korean service members were killed and two others were injured when an Army private threw a grenade at his commander and then opened fire at a unit near the border with North Korea. Most of the casualties were sleeping when the private carried out the attack.