By Oh Young-jin, Park Si-soo
Staff Reporters

Kim Kil-tae, the prime suspect in the kidnap, rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in Busan, was arrested Friday after a court issued a warrant for him.

The warrant was issued hours after the Busan District Court questioned Kim to decide whether detaining him was necessary. The prosecution sought the arrest warrant Thursday night.

The questioning took just 10 minutes, court officials said. "Kim remained silent during the session," an official was quoted as saying. The warrant was issued to keep the suspect from fleeing or destroying evidence.

Meanwhile, Kim continued to deny his involvement in the case, police said.

Kim, a 33-year-old unemployed man with two prior rape convictions, had been under intense questioning for three days after being apprehended by police on Wednesday, 15 days after the girl disappeared in a residential area, set for redevelopment.

"I don't know who that girl is," Kim was quoted by a police officer as saying during the questioning.

Police said that Kim was apparently undergoing a serious emotional change, when a friend of his was brought in and had a chat with him.

However, it didn't lead him to a confession. "He just went back to how he was, adamantly denying his involvement as before," an officer said.

Police said that Kim was confronted with the DNA evidence that put him in contact with the girl but insisted that he had nothing to do with the murder. Police twice examined the DNA samples found from the remains of the girl with that of Kim and both came up as positive matches.

Police officers said that Kim had recovered his strength and was in good health in contrast with the fatigue he showed when he was captured near his residence Wednesday.

In a departure from its usual low-profile investigations, police went public with the kidnapping case only days after the girl went missing.

The Busan police mounted the biggest manhunt in the city's history, mobilizing police officers for a house to house search in the area. Later, Kim was found hiding in vacant houses near the crime scene, surviving off instant noodles.

When he was apprehended, he claimed that he was sought after because of an attempt rape in January and told police that he had no knowledge about Lee or her death before he came to know about it through media reports.

Lee's rape and murder case is one of an increasing number of such heinous crimes, calling for a positive measure to deal with it, according to experts.

foolsdie@koreatimes.co.kr