Postal Worker Pleads Guilty to Firing at U.N.

A postal worker born in South Korea pleaded guilty Thursday to opening fire on the U.N. Secretariat Building last year, insisting he was protesting human rights abuses in North Korea.

Steve Kim, 57, told U.S. District Judge Robert Patterson that he had fired seven shots from his .357-caliber magnum handgun at the United Nations in October to protest the “miserable” life North Koreans suffer under the regime of Communist leader Kim Jong Il.

“I wanted to have some trace on the building, which means a symbol of the U.N. ... to show how much the North Koreans have a pitiful and miserable life under the dictator and [how Kim has caused] the deaths of millions of people over several years,” he said.

Kim, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives in Des Plaines, Ill., had been supported by his family and the Korean community in New York, but none of his family attended the early morning hearing in a nearly empty courtroom.

Kim insisted Thursday that he had practiced firing at an angle to minimize the chances of injuring any bystanders.

Raising his right hand over his head, Kim said, “I thought if I go like that, and I approach as close to the building as much as I can

The shots struck windows on the 18th and 20th floors of the Secretariat Building, narrowly missing U.N. employees, officials said.

Kim, a postal worker for 14 years who emigrated from South Korea about 20 years ago, admitted to using a loaded firearm to commit the assault.

He pleaded guilty to one count of making a violent assault upon a foreign official by firing his handgun seven times.

FBI agents charged that Kim, who traveled to New York to carry out the attack, had surveilled the United Nations beforehand.

Manhattan Assistant U.S. Atty. Matthew Biben said an investigation by his office and the FBI concluded that Kim was “not part of a concerted terrorist activity or an organized threat against either the U.S. or the U.N.”

Kim faces 2 1/2 to 3 years in prison when he is sentenced July 22. He also could be fined up to $60,000 and forced to pay for repairs.