U.N. shooting suspect from Des Plaines

By Amy McLaughlinand Freida Gad Daily Herald Staff Writers Posted on October 04, 2002

Michael Kim said he froze when he saw his father's image on the television screen Thursday.

Des Plaines resident and U.S. Postal Service employee Steven S. Kim, who the family believed was in Seattle, was surrounded by security guards and other law enforcement officers on the grounds of the United Nations headquarters outside Manhattan.

Authorities say Kim, a Korean-American, had just emptied a seven-shot pistol outside the building Thursday afternoon while protesting the North Korean government.

No one was injured. But U.N. employees were scurrying for cover as at least two of the shots hit the building and several narrowly missed employees.

Authorities and U.N. employees said Kim, 57, a naturalized U.S. citizen who has lived in the Chicago area since 1985, jumped a poorly guarded fence, fired into the air, dropped the gun and surrendered to authorities.

Before his capture, he threw leaflets in the air that criticized North Korea's government.

The shooting occurred at 1:10 p.m. as the Security Council was meeting on Iraq and Secretary-General Kofi Annan was holding talks with the Cypriot leaders in his office on the 38th floor.

"I'm confused. I'm shocked. My dad is perfectly normal," said Michael Kim, 24, from his Des Plaines condominium that is only a block from his parents' condominium just north of the Des Plaines city hall.

"I just don't know what caused this," Michael Kim said, hours before FBI agents descended on his building and his parents' on the 1400 block of Jefferson Street.

FBI officials said Kim was expected to be arraigned in federal court in Manhattan for violation of the protection of foreign officials act, although specific charges have yet to be determined. The act is a federal law that establishes protections for visiting dignitaries.

FBI officials reportedly were trying to confirm that Kim was born in North Korea. Michael Kim said the family moved to Chicago from Seoul, South Korea, in 1985.

Nancy Kim, Steve's wife, said Thursday night that Steve was born in Seoul. Nancy Kim refused to answer any more questions Thursday night.

Michael Kim said he and his mother had believed Steve Kim was on vacation by himself in Seattle.

A spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, who confirmed that Kim has worked as a mail clerk since 1988 at the Palatine Processing and Distribution Center, said Kim was on an approved leave from work.

Michael Kim said he and his father visited the U.N. building two weeks ago during a family vacation to New York City. Michael Kim said his father did not say much during the visit except to remark about the number of countries represented there.

Steven Kim was an avid newspaper reader who was interested in many American publications and at least one from Korea, Michael Kim said.

"He likes to know what's going on in the world," Michael Kim said.

But Michael Kim said he had no idea his father was that interested in North Korea.

The leaflets Kim threw at the scene were handwritten in English with many misspellings and were addressed to "all people who love freedom and justice."

"In a shinning and civilized 21st century, most people in the world enjoying peace and freedom. North Korea however is groaning under the weight of starvation and dictatorial suppression. They don't have even the most basic of human rights since all things body and spirit plants and plows belong to one named greatest general Kim Jong Il," it said.

It was signed: "A citizen of UN, Steve Kim, Oct. 2, 2002."

President Bush has accused North Korea of being part of an "axis of evil." The communist country has been in an economic crisis since the collapse of its main benefactor, the Soviet Union, almost 11 years ago. The peak of the crisis occurred in 1996-97 when, according to some experts, as many as 2 million people starved to death.

"It is our understanding he came here to make this statement about North Korea," said Michael McCann, U.N. security chief.

"We don't see any logic to his bringing attention to that cause in this manner," he said.

Kim was questioned by U.S. law enforcement authorities before being transferred to FBI custody and taken out of U.N. headquarters 90 minutes after the shooting.

The shots were fired from a Smith & Wesson pistol. Bullets hit a women's restroom on the 18th floor and an American Express office on the 20th floor of the U.N. Secretariat building.

"He had a gun. He shot in the air. I heard five to six shots, and then he dropped the gun," said U.N. spokeswoman Hua Jiang, who witnessed the incident from the window of her fourth-floor office.

Michael Hovey, the executive director of The Hague Appeal for Peace, ran into the shooter as he was leaving the U.N. building. Hovey said he saw Kim empty the pistol.

"Then he just walked over to the wall, grabbed some papers, threw them in the air and then sat down. Within a minute, the security guards surrounded him," Hovey told The Associated Press.

Michael Kim said he did not believe his father owned a gun.

McCann, the U.N. security chief, said security was supposed to have been beefed up since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks but his office has been slow hiring new recruits.

The U.N. headquarters overlooking Manhattan's East River was a terrorist target after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. And in a videotaped address aired in November, Osama bin Laden accused the world body of siding with the United States and called Secretary-General Annan a "criminal."

FBI agents Thursday night were at Kim's condo on Jefferson Street and his former home on Ida Street, where sons Michael and Steven now live. Agents at the scene would not say what they were doing.

A spokesman for the FBI's Chicago office could not be reached for comment Thursday. Neighbors at the condominium buildings said agents appeared to be searching the homes.

Cook County court records dating back to 1993 show no felony charges against Steve Kim. Des Plaines police say they have had no prior contact with Kim.

Kim's previous addresses include two others in Des Plaines, and two in Chicago.

Steve Kim's neighbors on Jefferson Street were also surprised by the news.

"I feel so sorry for him because he's so polite, soft-spoken," Shirley Wodzien said.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2002