soldier 'shot dead five comrades'

 

South Korean soldier who allegedly killed five members of his own unit was humiliated by comrades who drew pictures of him as SpongeBob SquarePants, according to military officials.

The soldier, surnamed Yim, was detained last month after the incident at an army unit near the border with North Korea.

He fled into the forest after the rampage, but was captured following a failed suicide attempt.

Brig. Gen. Seon Jong-chul, from the army police, told reporters that Yim testified that he went on the killing spree after finding drawings on the back of his unit's border patrol log depicting him as the children's cartoon and another cartoon character.

According to Seon, Yim said the drawings caused him to recall previous mockery and ignoring by fellow unit members.

Yim told investigators he suffered lots of stress because of the drawings, Seon said.

Defense Ministry officials said military prosecutors were planning to indict Yim.

A massive manhunt was launched for Yim after the shooting. 

When he was tracked down troops surrounded Yim in a forest about four miles from the border outpost and threw him a mobile phone so he could talk to his father.

Yim's parents also used a loudspeaker to try to persuade him to surrender. 

He shot himself in the side of his abdomen but failed to kill himself and was taken to a nearby hospital.

Yim was due to complete his nearly two years of mandatory military service in September, according to defence officials. Initial personality tests last April put him within a group of soldiers who needed special attention and were unfit for frontline duty, a Defence Ministry official said.

But tests last November concluded that he had improved and could serve in the frontline area. 

Shooting rampages against fellow soldiers occasionally happen in South Korea, which requires all able-bodied men to serve about two years because of a persistent threat from North Korea.

In 2005, a soldier tossed a grenade and opened fire at a front-line army unit in a rampage that killed eight colleagues and injured several others. 

He later told investigators that he was enraged at superiors who had verbally abused him.