Family of the gunman in the Virginia Tech massacre were living a tough life in South Korea before they emigrated to the United States.
SEOUL: The family of the gunman in the Virginia Tech massacre were living a tough life in South Korea before they emigrated to the United States in search of the American dream, news reports said on Wednesday.
Cho Seung-Hui was a 'very quiet and well-behaved' boy when he lived with his family in a modest rented apartment in northern Seoul before the family left for the United States in 1992, their former landlord said.
"I was just shocked when I was visited and told by (South Korean) police on Tuesday that the gunman was a boy who used to live in my apartment," Lim Bong-Ae, 67, was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.
"I remember him as a quiet and well-behaved boy. I just can't believe he did it," she said.
Cho and his parents and sister lived in the cheapest basement unit of Lim's three-storey apartment block in Changdong district for about a year and were "not so well-off," she said.
"One day, the parents told me they were moving out even before the contract for rent expired," she said.
"I asked where they were going and they answered they found their life here too hard and were emigrating to the United States, even though they had no acquaintances there," she said.
Cho's parents, who run a dry cleaning business, were reportedly hospitalised for shock after their 23-year-old student son killed 32 students and staff before committing suicide on Monday.
President Roh Moo-Hyun on Wednesday offered the American people condolences "from the bottom of my heart" following the deadliest school shooting in US history.
Other South Koreans expressed shock and fears of a racially motivated backlash against their compatriots living in the US.
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