Campus killer 'was autistic'
2007-04-20 10:28
Seoul - Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-hui was diagnosed with autism after the family emigrated to the United States, a relative in South Korea said.
"From the beginning, he wouldn't answer me," Kim Yang-soon, Cho's great aunt, said in an interview with Associated Press Television News on Thursday.
He "didn't talk. Normally sons and mothers talk. There was none of that for them. He was very cold," she said.
"When they went to the United States, they told them it was autism," said Kim, 85, adding that the family had constant worries about Cho.
Cho's uncle gave a similar account, but said there were no early indications that the South Korean student who killed 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech University in the US had serious problems. The uncle asked to be identified only by his last name, Kim.
Cho "didn't talk much when he was young. He was very quiet, but he didn't display any peculiarities to suggest he may have problems," Kim said. "We were concerned about him being too quiet and encouraged him to talk more."
Autism is a neuro-developmental disorder that encompasses a broad range of symptoms frequently including impaired social interaction and communication, as well as obsessive interests and behaviour. Autism remains a topic of heated debate in the scientific community, where little is understood about its cause.
- AP