SEOUL: The South Korean government expressed surprise and shock on Tuesday after the perpetrator of the deadliest school shooting in US history was identified as a Korean citizen.
Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon chaired a late-night emergency meeting of ministry staff after news broke that the culprit was Cho Seung-Hui, a legal US resident.
Police said Cho may have acted alone in killing 32 people at Virginia Tech University before killing himself on Monday.
Cho was an undergraduate student in his senior year majoring in English who lived on campus. His residence was in Centerville, Virginia, and he had resident alien status.
"The government expresses indescribable surprise and shock over this shooting incident," South Korean foreign ministry official Cho Byung-Jae said in a televised statement.
"We convey deep condolences to the victims and their bereaved families and the people," said Cho, head of the ministry's North American affairs bureau.
"We have established safety measures for ethnic Koreans in the US in case of contingencies and are in close consultations with all of our diplomatic missions and Korean communities in the US to implement the measures."
He did not elaborate but appeared to be referring to the possibility of reprisal attacks against Korean communities in the United States.
Millions of ethnic Koreans live in the United States, a close ally since South Korea came into being in 1948 following the post-war division of the peninsula.
Earlier in the day President Roh Moo-Hyun sent condolences to the families of victims of the shooting spree.
"An unbelievable incident took place," his spokesman quoted him as saying before it was known that a Korean was responsible.
An unidentified foreign official quoted by Yonhap news agency said: "The government has been rocked by the tragic incident and wants to express its deep condolences to the people involved."
He said Cho moved to the United States in 1992 and had lived there ever since.
The official said Seoul does not want the tragedy to become an ethnic issue that could raise racial tensions.
Yonhap said there are some 460 students from Korea studying at Virginia Tech undergraduate and graduate schools.
It said a South Korean student was among those injured in Monday's shooting. He has been hospitalised but is expected to be released soon.
