Korea Flashback: The 1972 Seoul Teahouse Hostage Incident

Something I plan to do more of is post various articles of interest that I see while browsing through the historical archives of the Stars & Stripes.  Below is an article I saw about a bizarre hostage incident that occurred in a Seoul teahouse that was published in the April 12, 1972 Stars & Stripes.

The incident involves a 19-year old teenager who took six people hostage in the teahouse before blowing it up with TNT.   Twenty buildings were burned in the resulting fire with nineteen people injured.  Fortunately no one was killed.  Amazingly the teenager survived blowing up the teahouse and claimed he did it because “He did not want to live anymore.”  You can read more details of the incident in the below article.