A man bombed bus and train stations in Seoul to depress stock prices and profit from it, police said Sunday. No one was injured in the explosions at the central Seoul Station and the Seoul Express Bus Terminal, which went off about an hour apart Thursday, a Korean news agency reported.
A 43-year-old man, identified only by the family name Kim, and two accomplices, named Lee and Park, were arrested Saturday on suspicion of hiding homemade explosives -- made of firecrackers, batteries and butane tanks connected to electrical wires -- in lockers at the stations.
Kim was plotting to make gains in futures options by driving down stock prices, police said. He was in debt after failed investments made after his release from prison last July 2010. "The explosions appear to have been aimed at attaining an individual's personal economic goals, rather than an act of terrorism with political motivations," said a police official.
